MAKUENI, Kenya – Restoring threatened forests entails various actions meant to improve human well-being and restore ecological functionality in regions that have been degraded or cleared of trees.
This process includes activities like biodiversity conservation, water source protection, and the promotion of sustainable land use practices, and it goes beyond just planting trees.
Important tactics for restoring ecosystems include active replanting, assisted natural regeneration, and natural regeneration, which frequently make use of native tree species.
Against this backdrop, community forests such as Muambwani and Kalumbi in Mbitini Ward within Makueni County are more than just trees—they are lifelines.
These treasured ecosystems support hundreds of wildlife species and offer food, firewood, clean water, and medicinal herbs to the nearby inhabitants.
However, irresponsible human activities like logging, cattle grazing, and encroachment endanger these forests, reducing the resources that both people and nature depend on.
The Department of Lands, Urban Planning and Development, Environment, and Climate Change in Makueni County has acted quickly in response to this situation.
What is a Participatory Forest Management Plan
They recently finished a rigorous four-day biodiversity and socioeconomic assessment in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the European Union under the Digital Land Governance Programme.
This assessment mapped the detrimental impacts of human activity while documenting the forests’ rich flora and fauna.
This assessment paves the way for formulating a Participatory Forest Management Plan (PFMP)—a community-driven blueprint to restore and sustainably manage the two forests.
Led by FAO’s Cluster Land Technical Specialist, Christopher Sowek, and Makueni County Forester Damaris Mwikali, the plan will empower locals to protect their natural heritage while creating eco-friendly livelihoods such as beekeeping, agroforestry, ecotourism, and plant-based medicinal extracts.
According to Mwikali, the county government has put in place various measures in a bid to restore the local community forests.
“The county has come up with the Forest and Restoration Plan that has set a target of 100,000 hectares of restoration in the forests that lie in the landscapes of Makueni. We are also working with all the stakeholders to conserve our environment because we cannot do all this on our own,” said Mwikali.
She also disclosed that the devolved unit is sensitising the communities living around forests on how they can earn out of these ecosystems.
“They can put money in their pockets by installing beehives in the forests so that they can harvest honey and sell it. By doing so, we shall have enhanced the surveillance of our forests, and also, there is the issue of value addition out of the resources that are in these forests, like fruits,” explained Mwikali.
How can Makueni residents utilise the community forests
Makueni Kenya Forest Service (KFS) Conservator Martin Mutula said that through his office, they are sensitising residents about the effects of destroying forests.
“There are other better ways we can use forests. For instance, we can make our forests tourist attractions, and we can also use them to get different varieties of herbal medicines. So, people should desist from cutting down trees in the forests,” explained Mutula.
This comes when residents of Masongaleni Ward, one of the driest areas in Makueni County, which has long grappled with severe water scarcity and environmental degradation, can breathe a sigh of relief.
This narrative is taking a different turn after the county government, through the climate change unit in partnership with the Department of Water and Sanitation, installed a reverse osmosis plant to desalinate Kiambani Borehole water. This innovative solution aims to provide safe, high-quality water for domestic use.
At Muliluni Community Forest, the climate change unit has distributed 50 modern beehives to residents, empowering them to engage in honey production.
This low-cost yet highly profitable venture is intended to boost household incomes while also encouraging environmental conservation by protecting the forest ecosystem.
This project is among 12 others co-funded by the County Government of Makueni in partnership with the World Bank through the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) Program.
