Base Titanium Kwale Mine Biodiversity Corridor & Critically Endangered Species Programme (Kenya)

Base Titanium built a biodiversity corridor linking remnant patches of indigenous coastal forest inside its Kwale mineral sands mining lease to the adjacent Gongoni Forest Reserve, working with the National Museums of Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya Forest Service across the mine's 2013–2024 operating life. One of the largest indigenous tree nurseries in East and Central Africa underpins the programme.

As of December 2022, the company reported 232,945 trees propagated across 305 species in the nursery, including 3,687 Critically Endangered trees propagated and 2,361 planted out, and 161,563 trees planted in the field overall. More than 90 species from the IUCN Red List (Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable) were propagated for the first time, and over 1,400 individuals of the Critically Endangered tree Gigasiphon macrosiphon were planted in the corridor; independent biodiversity monitoring by National Museums of Kenya specialists recorded 113 bird species on site.

Kenya's National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) publicly praised the land restoration roughly two years after mine closure, and the rehabilitation methodology was documented in a peer-reviewed 2024 international mine-closure conference paper. Set against this, Kenyan newspaper The Standard reported that no comprehensive mine-closure plan, rehabilitation framework or independent environmental audit had been disclosed to affected villagers during decommissioning, and a national academic audit of Kenyan mining EIAs found sector-wide weaknesses in predicting biological impacts — evidence that the company's extensive propagation counts have not yet been matched by fully public, third-party-audited biodiversity-outcome verification.

Read the full analysis: https://basetitanium.com/our-programs/biodiversity/