Conservation Group builds ‘’wall of prayer’’ to Preserve African Woodland

By Nneka Nwogwugwu

The Dakatcha Woodland is home to Africa’s tiniest owl; a long-legged shrew with golden fur found nowhere else on earth; and weaver birds so rare it took Kenyan ornithologist Colin Jackson 13 years to track down their breeding grounds.

The East African habitat, which stretch over about 465,000 acres north of the coastal town of Malindi, Kenya, are under constant threat from climate change, expanding farms, and charcoal production.

“We’re fighting against a huge wave of destruction,” Jackson, who is also head of A Rocha Kenya, told CT.

There are only so many things you can do to save a forest. You can lobby for environmental laws. Buy land and place it in a trust. Raise money. Raise awareness. Promote scientific research on the importance of the habitat for biodiversity, said Jackson.

Also, according to Jackson, you can pray. “There have been times when things have looked pretty desperate and yet we’ve managed to break through and things have improved,” he said.

A Rocha Kenya, the local branch of the international network of environmental organizations with Christian ethos, has set up a “wall of prayer” to protect the Dakatcha Woodland and other key sites.

It consists of a WhatsApp group of about 80 or so Christian conservationists around the world that A Rocha Kenya can call on for intercession when faced with a crisis.

Many people are skeptical of the power of prayer, and there is an especially fierce criticism of those who invoke “thoughts and prayers” as a way not to take action on pressing social issues. But Christians who care about the environment have been increasingly turning to intercession as a spiritual tool commensurate with great need.

Believers from Asia, Europe, and North America gathered monthly ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Scotland to intercede for the governments negotiating emissions targets. At the conference, Christian observers prayed for “a godly outcome.”

And the Christian conservation group in Kenya is organizing believers who will pray for the protection of the forest that is home to many rare creatures.

But some conservationists are sharply critical of the approach—and opposed to any effort to care for the environment that puts an emphasis on Christian convictions.

Mordecai Ogada, executive director of Kenyan nonprofit Conservation Solutions Afrika, told CT that the model of conservation currently practiced in Kenya “is steeped in racial bias and the dominance of ‘whiteness.’” Instead of attempting to decolonize, it draws its traditions and ideas from people like Theodore Roosevelt, the US president who was a noted conservationist, and John Muir, the Scottish American naturalist and “father of the National Parks.”

“In African societies, spirituality is closely tied to stewardship of the environment, but this African spirituality has always been vilified by missionaries and Christianity,” Ogada said. “The Christian basis for conservation instantly excludes those who do not subscribe to the Christian faith.”