Story of Dr Rene Haller: Swiss Who Turned an African Wasteland into a Green Paradise
Dr Rene Haller’s is one story of how a man transformed a wasteland corner of Africa into a fledging green paradise that today attracts thousands of tourists from around the world, and may offer lessons for green progress in America on sustainability successes elsewhere.
1957 AD: A young Swiss agronomist goes to Africa, the dark continent, to manage a coffee plantation at the foot of the ice-capped mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest; a few years later, he gets another brief - to produce food - fruit and vegetables - for cement factory workers, many of whom were undernourished, as well as spruce up the area surrounding the site.
1970 AD: Dr Haller starts a unique ecological experiment, attempting to rehabilitate the limestone quarries scarring the Mombasa coastline, including the 7 square kilometer Bamburi cement quarry site from a barren and dusty lunar landscape to an ecological haven.
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2008 AD: The quarries are transformed into a combination of lakes, wetlands and savannah grasslands, with walking and cycling trails, as well as a nature park and wildlife sanctuary - nearly 100,000 visited in 2002.
Haller Park, as the facility is now known, hosts a variety of wildlife including hippos, giraffe, buffaloes and antelopes, as well as smaller mammals and birds. Sally the Hippo can be seen daily enjoying the green vegetation together with her male consort, Potty,
The man-made forest ecosystem is so unique that it contains a game sanctuary, a palm garden, a snake and reptile park, a crocodile farm, and an integrated aquaculture and fish farm, all in a single facility.
Over 80 species of palms are to be found in this garden with many of them being collected by Dr Haller himself. Dotted around the palm garden are a number of small lakes and ponds, sprinkled with lilies and other plants to produce a lush tropical forest look in a rehabilitated quarry very near the Equator!
The integrated aquaculture system is well known for its unique and simple principals when it comes to the interfacing of different aquaculture farming practices with each other.
The abundance of unpolluted ground water made this a further form of rehabilitation that could be undertaken in the quarry. The crocodiles are fed on Tilapia and the waste water from their tanks, rich in phosphate and nitrogen, flows into the rice paddies, providing valuable fertilizer.
In a book that celebrates his ecological triumphs in Africa, Dr Haller, a 1987 laureate of the UN Global 500 Roll of Honor, reminisces: “The ugly wasteland expanded annually by tens of thousands of square meters. No plants seemed able to establish themselves. I spent countless hours in the hot dusty barren land, found a few ferns and perhaps half a dozen grasses struggling to take root - it was hardly an encouraging environment for tree planting”.
“However one day I discovered in a remote part of the quarry five small casuarina trees. Finally I had found some life which inspired me - a glimmer of hope giving a direction which might be worthwhile following”.
That was the inspiration that changed a wasteland into a green paradise in Africa that is today a great tourist and ecological attraction.
Haller Park is indeed a modern day Garden of Eden worth visiting. I was there a few days ago, and I can attest to its beauty, thanks to Dr Rene Haller, the Swiss man who saw what none had ever dreamed of before.
Photo rights: Lafarge Eco Systems
…goes to Africa, the dark continent,…
To think this is actually written by an African, in 2008!
It seemed like an interesting story but after that line so early in the article I had no desire to read any further.
I had met Dr Haller in 1985 in Bamburi Nature Park. Then it was few casuarina trees in the mined wasteland. Nice to know it is sort of mixed forest now.
Mukanya, you probably may have wanted to get the gist of the context of the phrase you are refering to in the story before offering your comment. You will see that Dr Haller arrived at Bamburi, then a disused quarry site, a few years after 1957.
Most of Africa was still under colonial rule with Ghana, then Gold Coast, achieving independence later that year. Why were the colonialists there in the first place? That the continent was dark and backward and uncivilized, and that it needed to embrace the colonialist’s civilization.
But this is a story about the brighter side of life, and celebrates the good efforts of one man who helped change the environment there and about how we should appreciate and nurture the gift of Mother Nature.
“a fledging green paradise that today attracts thousands of tourists from around the world”
Isn’t that an oxymoron?
i think you don’t need to be told just pay i visit to haller park and see wonders, cause how would a quarry be turned to productive land?ain’t easy .good work Dr haller.