EANHSbutotn WUfr»Jf tlJ JOOf 
17 
Advocacy 
Across the Ixirder. Nature Uganda 
is making tremendous progress 
and doing work that everyone in 
the Society can he proud of ! 
should briefly mention their 
hosting of the Tenth Pan-African 
Ornithological Congress, in 
Kampala in September 2000. a 
major challenge that the Nature 
I iganda staff and volunteers rose 
to superbly. This was widely 
agreed to Ik- the best PAOC ever 
anti has dramatically increased the 
organisation's profile both inside 
and outside Uganda. 
Nature Kenya itself continues to 
make a considerable advocacy 
input to many national processes 
and issues, too many to list here 
today. There Is no doubt that we 
are now widely recognised and 
respected as an organisation that 
makes objective, constructive and 
technically solid contributions. It 
was particularly gratifying to note 
Kenya's accession to AHWA (the 
A trican -Eurasian Water bird 
Agreement ) earlier this year, a 
process initiated and pushed along 
by your Society, At the Kenya 
Government's imitation we also 
loruied pan ot the small naiional 
delegation lo llu i omenlion mi 
lliologit.il Dim isii> sMibsi.h.iix 
1 m l\ on s. it'iililit let Iiiii. al ami 
I .-, htiologu al \dv n e < In n «- 1 
known as SIIM'I \ n« *1 •|in»« the 
acronym to end all acronyms, but 
close). This followed on from our 
successful panicipation In COP 5 
of CRD, and is another indication 
of the seriousness with which 
Nature Kenya's input is taken. 
While this recognition is 
encouraging, it remains essentially 
at the technical level Unfortunately, 
high-level decision-making still 
often brushes aside environmental 
concerns, as evidenced by the 
Government's recent step to de- 
gazette a substantial portion of 
Kenya’s forest estate. Through the 
Kenya Forests Working Group and 
our own site-support groups, we 
have been very active in the 
campaign to have this startling 
move reversed. Unfortunately there 
still seems little promise of this 
happening, and the environmental 
consequences are likely to impact 
on all of us. 
As Francis Bacon pointed out 
nearly 400 years ago, “Nature, to be 
commanded, must be obeyed”. It is 
frustrating that those who are 
presently determining our future 
refuse to open their eyes to this 
reality In the long term, of course, 
tills simply underlines the 
importance ul the work that your 
Nociciv in «l« ting lo spread awareness 
• •I ihe extraordinary value 
. omplf vii\ and beauty ol namial 
s\ stems 
