Celebrating African Biological Diversity, and Recalling Those Who’ve Fallen Protecting It

NAIROBI, Kenya — I’m halfway through a weeklong visit to this vibrant, polluted, hopeful and divided city, running discussions on several topics at a big United Nations conference clarifying the role of science, business and, of course, governments in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals the world’s nations adopted last year. But given that I’ve never been to this part of Africa, I’ve also been exploring urbanization issues and opportunities in the city’s sprawling slums and I spent Sunday in and around Nairobi National Park.

You’ll learn more about my urban reporting, and the environmental meeting, soon. But Sunday happened to be the International Day for Biological Diversity, so I’ll offer a glimpse of some of what I saw.

My first stop, while my guide, Oliver Chege, was checking us in at the busy park entrance early in the morning, was a memorial I noticed near the parking lot. Brass plaques packed with names of fallen Kenyan Wildlife Service officers cover three sides. You could sense that the back side was next.

Here’s a taste of what these brave guardians died protecting, starting with two young male impalas that began sparring as we passed.

Three white rhinoceroses grazed placidly.

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Three white rhinoceroses graze in Kenya’s Nairobi National Park.Credit Andrew C. Revkin

As a batch of young cavorted nearby, two rock hyraxes seemingly enjoyed the view.

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A pair of rock hyraxes in Nairobi National Park.Credit Andrew C. Revkin

Later, I visited the remarkable elephant orphanage (written about here previously) run by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Thirty two orphans are being raised, in hopes they will join the 200 other elephants released in the wild by the program.

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Children feel the hide of one of several dozen orphaned elephants being reared for eventual release at a Nairobi animal orphanage run by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Credit Andrew C. Revkin

Shortly afterward came the Giraffe Center of the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, which has been raising rare Rothschild’s giraffes for release, with some serving in a popular education program visited by tens of thousands of Kenyan students each year, along with thousands of tourists and Kenyan families.

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The Giraffe Center near Nairobi National Park in Kenya raises rare Rothschild’s giraffes and holds programs for students, families and tourists. Credit Andrew C. Revkin

In pondering urbanization and ecology tonight, I was reminded of one of many disquieting scenes around the park where signs of the building boom that’s spreading around the periphery cut into any sense of the wild, as with this construction crane and hartebeest.

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As a hartebeest takes a break from grazing, a construction crane on the horizon signals that development is encircling Nairobi National Park.Credit Andrew C. Revkin

Not all threats to wildlife carry weapons.

But the flip side of having cranes on the horizon is that a splendid park on the edge of a city offers millions of people a way to sustain a relationship with unbuilt green space and wildlife.