managing ecosystems. The trout must have clean, fast-flowing water to survive. High above the fish and the tea farms, the old forest line the skyline. Elephants sometimes stray out of the forest The drive from Embu to Meru has some breath taking scenery.

We turn to the mountain, climbing higher up the slopes. The country side is picturesque, with a green carpet of tea plantations, coffee shrubs and macadamia trees. The air is tantalizingly fresh. From the main road, it’s hard to imagine that there is fertile farmland so far up Mt Kenya.

The clear rivers

A river runs from the slopes, crystal-clear cold water gushing out of the forest, skirting the farms and down to the plains. It’s the Rupingazi. Near the indigenous forest, a trout farm has been set up by the Nyanjara Rivers Waters Association, not only an income generating venture to uplift their living standards, but also to save the mountain’s remaining forests.

It’s a holistic approach to managing ecosystems. The trout must have clean, fast-flowing water to survive. High above the fish and the tea farms, the old forest line the skyline. Elephants sometimes stray out of the forest

offee shrubs and macadamia trees. The air is tantalizingly fresh. From the main road, it’s hard to imagine that there is fertile farmland so far up Mt Kenya.

The clear rivers

A river runs from the slopes, crystal-clear cold water gushing out of the forest, skirting the farms and down to the plains. It’s the Rupingazi. Near the indigenous forest, a trout farm has been set up by the Nyanjara Rivers Waters Association, not only an income generating venture to uplift their living standards, but also to save the mountain’s remaining forests.

It’s a holistic approach to managing ecosystems. The trout must have clean, fast-flowing water to survive. High above the fish and the tea farms, the old forest line the skyline. Elephants sometimes stray out of the forest

uns from the slopes, crystal-clear cold water gushing out of the forest, skirting the farms and down to the plains. It’s the Rupingazi. Near the indigenous forest, a trout farm has been set up by the Nyanjara Rivers Waters Association, not only an income generating venture to uplift their living standards, but also to save the mountain’s remaining forests.

It’s a holistic approach to managing ecosystems. The trout must have clean, fast-flowing water to survive. High above the fish and the tea farms, the old forest line the skyline. Elephants sometimes stray out of the forest

the Nyanjara Rivers Waters Association, not only an income generating venture to uplift their living standards, but also to save the mountain’s remaining forests.

It’s a holistic approach to managing ecosystems. The trout must have clean, fast-flowing water to survive. High above the fish and the tea farms, the old forest line the skyline. Elephants sometimes stray out of the forest

managing ecosystems. The trout must have clean, fast-flowing water to survive. High above the fish and the tea farms, the old forest line the skyline. Elephants sometimes stray out of the forest since farms wedge their way higher up.

The mega-sponge forests

But it’s these old forest that act as mega-sponges, providing the clean fresh water. It is, therefore, in the best interest of the community to look after the forests. I’m shown a story book in Kiswahili based on an elephant and a farmer and the problems they have to deal with in the end, the farmer realizes that the elephant also need a space to live, and that cutting down the forests is not beneficiary to anybody. In the larger context, it all boils down to good management. Further down the road on our way to Chogoria, a ribbon of a water fall catches my eye. It’s so beautiful that we stop to ask some people by the roadside what it’s called.

“That waterfall is called Ina. It used to be on a w