KENYA:Forests may hold the key to preventing devastating droughts, writes Rob Crillyin Nairobi.
Regenerating east Africa's forests is the best way to reduce the risk of future droughts such as the one that has taken the region to the brink of famine, according to scientists at the United Nations Environment Programme.
Approximately 11 million people face starvation in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti following poor rains last year.
While climate change is one of the factors to blame, said Klaus Toepfer, director of the UN environment body, deforestation has reduced the ability of the land to make the most of its rain.
"Drought is no stranger to the peoples of east Africa. It is a natural climatic phenomenon.
"What has dramatically changed in recent decades is the ability of nature to supply essential services like water and moisture during hard times.
"This is because so much of nature's water and rain-supplying services have been damaged, destroyed or cleared," said Mr Toepfer.
"These facts are especially poignant when you factor in the impact of climate change which is triggering more extreme weather events like droughts."
He said that international efforts should focus on conserving and restoring forests, lakes and wetlands.
Rainfall over the past year has been poor and the recent rainy season of October to December 2005 has been dismal, according to the Kenyan Meteorological Services.
As a result, some 2.5 million people in the country need urgent humanitarian assistance to survive for the next six months.
Mwai Kibaki, the Kenyan president, has declared the emergency to be a "national disaster" and appealed for $150 million in aid to plug funding shortfalls.
Pastoralist communities in the north of the country have been particularly badly hit. Aid agencies report some herdsmen have lost up to a third of their cattle.
Roger Persichino, of Action Against Hunger, said: "This population depends on cattle for food, transportation and economic viability. Cattle dying now means that children will die months from now, and families will be left with no economic viability or way to feed themselves."
Kenya is not alone. Last week the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN issued a bleak warning for the whole of the region.
"Millions of people are on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa due to recent severe droughts, coupled with the effects of past and ongoing conflicts," said the Rome-based agency. "Food shortages are particularly grave in Somalia where about two million people need humanitarian assistance."
Christian Lambrechts, of the UN's Environment Programme's division of early warning and assessment, said tree cover and wetlands were vital to improving or maintaining rainfall.
Almost two-thirds of precipitation was caused by evapo-transpiration from dense vegetations, lakes and wetlands, Mr Lambrechts explained.
"It is impossible to do anything about precipitation from oceans and seas, but there is a lot we can do about the land. Trees not only assist the land in absorbing water when it rains, helping to feed rivers and lakes, wetland and underground aquifers.
"But they also act as natural pumps, bringing moisture from around two metres below into the air. Here it can fall back as showers and rainfall," Mr Lambrechts said.