ILULA, Kenya: Anyone hearing the loud singing coming from Isaac Chereger's farm would be forgiven for thinking it was a particularly enthusiastic church gathering.
Instead, it was a group of women calling to order a meeting of a local religious charity that teaches villagers how to conserve the forest around their homes in this southwestern Kenya community, to help stop the Mara River from drying. For more than a decade, environmental groups have raised the alarm over the Mara River, warning that population growth, illegal logging and overuse of its waters by communities struggling through drought have caused a dramatic drop in the river's water levels.