Dear traveller, do you know by dropping of plastic waste on wildlife and marine sanctuaries is tantamount to terminating their existence? This is because these plastic are not only indigestible to animals but also non-biodegradable, meaning they cannot be decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms. This eventually leads to other forms of pollution with serious effects on the environment.

It is for this reason that the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) will be effecting a legislation that was announced by his excellency, President Uhuru Kenyatta in June 2019 which when effected will ban the use of plastic including cutlery and crockery in Kenya’s beaches, parks, reserves, forests, marine sanctuaries and conservation areas. The law will be effected in June 2020.

 

KWS will continue to push for sustainable tourism and national parks with the objective of achieving a plastic-free environment prior to the enforcement of the ban on single-use plastics mid next year.

To achieve this, KWS launched an aggressive social media campaign to coincide with her theme during this years’ MKTE, featuring various species of wildlife photographed interacting with plastic.

According to a World Bank Urban Development Series report, Africa currently produces around 70 million tonnes of waste annually. Burgeoning human populations and rapid urbanization of rural areas point to a discouraging forecast: waste production in this continent will be upwards of 160 million tonnes by the year 2025.

Currently, just 10% of the waste generated every day in this continent is collected. The rest ends up in dump sites and the surrounding environment, with detrimental results to flora and fauna.

Examples of the photos employed in the KWS campaign include a baboon brandishing a plastic container/drinking straw, commonly used for fruit juices; a white bird with a tetra pack juice box; a sea turtle with its face partially covered by a large plastic bag, and a lion cub with a can of a popular brand of beer in its mouth.