How a Community Forest Association Restored 50 Hectares of Forest in 2 Months in the Middle of a Pandemic
A few years ago, before the Aberdare-Kiburu community embarked on the restoration of the degraded areas of the forest in South Kinangop, Nyandarua County, soil erosion and water scarcity were a common feature in the landscape.
During the rainy seasons, flash floods washed away the top fertile soil into the nearby streams and robbed the land of its natural fertility while polluting the rivers and loading sediments downstream into Lake Naivasha.
Yet soon after the rains, the streams ran dry forcing the locals to trek many kilometers across the unforgiving hilly terrain in search of water.
James Karanja, the Aberdare-Kiburu Community Forest Association (CFA) chairman, says water scarcity, loss of forest cover among other challenges was the shared pain that brought them together to form their CFA.
The Aberdare Forest is a source of many rivers, chief among them River Malewa which drains into Lake Naivasha — the country’s hub of the multi-billion flower industry. The capital city, Nairobi, which represents 50% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is dependent on the Aberdare water tower for its water supply.
While the water tower is evidently critical to the country’s livelihood and its economy, illegal logging, land degradation and climate change have been drivers of degradation on the landscape.
In 2020, through Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) project, WWF-Kenya, together with co-implementer, National Alliance of Community Forest Associations (NACOFA) partnered with three Community Forest Associations (CFAs) Aberdare-Kiburu, North Kinangop and Geta to restore the degraded forest.
Restoration efforts were halted because of the Covid-19 pandemic but tree-planting resumed in June 2021, with the Aberdare-Kiburu CFA members restoring over 50 hectares in a span of two months.
When the restoration work resumed, the project purchased over 120,000 seedlings from the community forest associations. Each of three associations received1.2 million shillings as payment of supply of indigenous tree seedlings that were planted in over 75 hectares of the forest.
The five year (2020–2024) project aims to improve agriculture and forest production systems of forest communities in Nyandarua County through enhanced political framework and successful implementation of FLR strategies. It aims to restore 500 hectares of gazetted forests, 40km of riparian land and 100 hectares of farmlands,working with 400 beneficiaries between 2020–2024.
Ms Caroline Njiru, the WWF-Kenya Rift Lakes-Naivasha Sub-Landscape Programme Coordinator, said the project is contributing to Africa Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) and it complements the government’s pledge to rehabilitate 5.1 million hectares of degraded landscapes.
By Leopold Obi
