Description:
<p>The Bura Irrigation Settlement Project was designed to settle landless farmers and grow irrigated cotton for export in a remote, semiarid region of Kenya. Over 100 million has been invested by the Kenya government, World Bank, Britain's Overseas Development Administration, Finland's FINNIDA, The Netherlands, Commonwealth Development Corporation, and European Development Fund. The project has been plagued by a wide range of financial, managerial, and technical problems, and has been economically disappointing. Some of the disappointing economic performance is linked to the almost complete lack of concern for forestry, wildlife, and other environmental issues during most stages of project implementation. The riverine (gallery) forests of the Tana River represent a biologically unique ecosystem in a semiarid region of Kenya. The irrigated areas developed under the Bura project have not been situated on riverine forest lands. Nonetheless, the project seriously threatens the long-term survival of all the nearby riverine forest owing to the acute shortage of fuel-wood in the region. This shortage has occurred largely because the planned fuelwood plantations have been neglected.</p>