The Kenyan government and other stakeholders have given the green light for Unesco to explore declaring Africa’s third geopark site in the East African country.
There are currently only two Unesco-designated geopark sites in Africa: M’Goun (Morocco) and Ngorongoro Lengai (Tanzania).
Now Kenya’s Baringo Great Rift Valley Geopark is seeking the approval of Unesco’s Geopark Council.
Geoparks “are single, unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development”.
Located within the Rift Valley, Baringo is characterised by steep-fault scarps, deep gorges, cliffs, escarpment, lake systems, gushing geysers and hot springs.
In addition, Baringo has rich cultural diversity and archaeological sites believed to be the origin of mankind where the earliest human skeleton nearly six million years old, was discovered.
During the inaugural regional capacity-building workshop on Geoparks in Africa in December, Kenya indicated its political commitment and interest for the geopark concept.
The aim of the workshop was to provide a platform that would enable strategic promotion of geo-heritage conservation of geopark territory and geopark projects in Africa and included representatives from Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
“The presence of the Cabinet Secretary, Governor, county leaders, and national leaders confirms indeed that the government has embraced the concept and a number of counties will start learning from Baringo,” said Dr Evangeline Njoka, Secretary-General of Kenya’s National Commission for Unesco.
At the official opening of the workshop, Peninah Malonza, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage in Kenya, applauded Unesco’s Global Geopark’s approach. “The Unesco Geopark is underpinned by the bottom-up model of development, and this is consistent with the government’s manifesto premised on the community taking a central role to push their social economic agenda.”
