Ecological disaster awaits Kenya

Blitz Bureau

NAIROBI: Entomologist Shadrack Muya, a senior lecturer at Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, said that ants are important for aerating soils, enhancing soil fertility and dispersing seeds. He added that their removal from their environment disrupts the ecosystem, reported africanews.com. Muya warned against taking ants from their natural habitats, saying they were unlikely to survive if not supported to adapt to their new environment, said the report.

“Survival in the new environment will depend on the interventions that are likely to take place. Where it has been taken away from, there is a likelihood of an ecological disaster that may happen due to that disturbance,” he said. Two Belgian teenagers found with 5,000 ants in Kenya were given a choice of paying a fine of $7,700 or serving 12 months in prison – the minimum penalty for the offense – for violating wildlife conservation laws. Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species.

Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19 years old, were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house in Nakuru county, which is home to various national parks. They were charged on April 15. Magistrate Njeri Thuku, sitting at the court in Kenya’s main airport, said in her ruling that despite the teenagers telling the court they were naïve and collecting the ants as a hobby, the particular species of ants they collected is valuable and they had thousands of them – not just a few.

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) had said the teenagers were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-colored harvester ant native to East Africa. The teenagers’ lawyer, Halima Nyakinyua, described the sentencing as “fair” and said her clients would not appeal.

The illegal export of the ants “not only undermines Kenya’s sovereign rights over its biodiversity but also deprives local communities and research institutions of potential ecological and economic benefits,” KWS said in a statement.

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