Planned road across Kenyan park creates split between environmental costs and financial gains

Following pressure from Kenyan President William Ruto, Kenya's national environment authority has issued a license for the construction of a 32-mile tarmac road through the Aberdare forest and mountain range to connect two counties

ABERDARE RANGE, Kenya -- In a dense layer of green thousands of feet above sea level, cedar, podo and hegeina trees pattern the landscape, thick moss hanging from their branches and feathery lichen attached to their barks. Numerous streams and rivers flow between them, plunging over steep waterfalls. Buffaloes, bushbucks and monkeys roam in search of pastures.

This is the Aberdare Range, a forest and mountain range in central Kenya that’s one of the country’s main water sources and a key wildlife habitat.

But it may not remain the same.

The Kenyan government wants to build a 32-mile tarmac road to connect two counties, and the country’s environmental agency, the National Environment Management Authority, issued an environmental impact assessment license for the project last month. The project would cut through 15 miles of closed canopy forest and likely increase vehicle traffic into animal paths.

Residents are optimistic the project could improve their lives. But scientists and conservationists fear irreparable damage to the ecosystem. Threatened tree species could get cut down, animals could get hit by vehicles, the road would cut across moorlands — fragile areas for water catchment — and invasive species and pollutants could enter the park through vehicles.