INTERVIEW-Satellites to help Kenyans insure against drought

* Plan to streamline livestock insurance for poor

* Step to help poor guard against climate change

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Satellites measuring the greenness of Kenya from space are set to help insure livestock herders against droughts and mitigate the effects of climate change, experts said on Friday.

"This is a new approach to tackle an old problem," Carlos Sere, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), said of the satellite-based insurance for cattle, goats and other animals.

"In the volatile climate change world this type of project will be more important," he said during a visit to Oslo. The Kenyan pilot scheme, due to start in early 2010, would be the first such satellite insurance for a developing nation.

Satellite images will measure the greenness of vegetation in the Marsabit area of northern Kenya. A shift to brown will trigger payouts to pastoralists because of expected livestock deaths from drought.

"Traditionally we have helped pastoralists by sending them hay if there is a drought, or treating the weakest animals with vaccines to keep off diseases," Sere said. "That's very inefficient and expensive.