Dear friends. I recently had the chance to visit and sensitise youth groups in the famous Dadab and Hagardera refugee camps in Kenya. I was invited by some official of UNHCR and CARE Kenya to talk to the youths in the area on general environmental issues affecting their life. We had a great moment together as we were entertained by traditioanl groups and school children following my talk . Since the collapse of the Somali republic in 1991 the influxes of refugees in these camps have been constant and now most of the the current youth were born in these camps. Ofcourse direct consequence of this is the impact to the environmnt as this people directly depend on the ever diminishing dryland natural resources available causing serious vegetaion destructions. This is manifested in terms of charcoal burning, firewood harvesting and massive green cuttings for shelter materials especially in the refugee camps areas. it was obvious to me that continuous exploitation of deadwood for the immediate needs of the refugees and the host communities without regards to its sustainability will compromise the natural regenerative capacity of the environment, and thus compromising its ability to meet the needs of the future generation. Dead woods are home to several insects and rodents that play an important role in nutritional cycles, and also serve an important food source for birds, thus contributing significantly to the complex food web. As we all know there is increasing global and local recognition of the inter-dependence between environment and development and often environmental destruction is directly proportional to the level of povety. I therefore urge development agents in the area to sandwitch environmtal programes with other development issues.

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