MARSABIT, Kenya – To encourage sustainable harvesting and processing, the Department of Water’s Directorate of Environment and Climate Change formally gave the Laisamis Gum and Resin Cooperative operational kits and harvesting gear, along with practical training on how to use them.
The equipment was acquired through the County Government of Marsabit’s Climate Change Resilience Investment (CCRI), which was funded by the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) program. By bolstering local responses and natural resource governance, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions, this assistance focuses on communities that are at risk from climate change.
Gums and resins, mostly extracted from Acacia trees, provide significant benefits to local communities, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions, by contributing to livelihoods, income generation, and even providing essential goods and services.
This comes when environmentalists have raised the red flag over the rampant destruction of Acacia trees in areas predominantly occupied by Kenyan pastoral communities.
Y News has established that pastoral communities, mainly in the Northern Kenya region, have long relied on livestock as their source of livelihood.
The pastoral groups in the region are the Turkana, Samburu, Borana, Somali, Pokot, Ilchamus, and Rendille.
In these regions, Y News knows that the Acacia tree is a source of wood, fodder, and shade for the communities.
What are experts saying about the gum and resin industry
But according to Boniface Kiteme, Director of the Centre for the Training and Integrated Research in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Development (CITRAD), based in Nanyuki, Laikipia County, these communities are sitting on hundreds of thousands of acres of unexplored treasure.
These treasures, Kiteme recently told Y News, can change the fortunes of a region characterised by hunger and poverty.
Researchers like Kiteme predict that the Acacia trees in the northern region of Kenya are worth billions of US Dollars.
Kiteme says that it’s high time that the locals of counties such as Marsabit, Wajir, and Mandera counties took advantage of these plants by venturing into the lucrative trade of gums and resins, which are dried sap from specific Acacia trees.
“I want to observe this: almost everything we depend on today also depends on gums and resins. You can talk about the chemical industry, breweries, Coca-Cola, paints, and even pharmaceuticals, but these factories cannot function without gums from the Acacia trees,” Kiteme said.
When Y News recently visited the region, it established that soil and water availability are critical factors in tree growth.
However, arid soil and atmospheric conditions limit tree growth in arid deserts. Acacia tree species are distributed in the most arid deserts of the globe; therefore, they are well adapted to heat and prolonged droughts.
Why Marsabit is tapping into the gum and resin industry
Arid and semi-arid areas cover up to 45% of the Earth’s surface. Although desert habitats are poor in water and nutrients, Acacia trees inhabit many deserts around the globe.
In the gum and resin industry, a crucial economic activity for Marsabit County, this intervention aims to improve manufacturing standards and product quality. It is anticipated that manufacturers would embrace sustainable practices while meeting market demands with improved instruments and methodologies.
The assistance was welcomed by cooperative members in Marsabit County, who said it was necessary and timely in tackling ongoing issues. In order to gain access to markets and strengthen their position throughout the value chain, they made an appeal for more robust collaborations.
Kiteme reiterated that understanding why some plants do better than others in some environments is critical in plant science.
“Let me insist that whether looking at natural gum or artificial gums, there is a huge market potential for gum consumption,” Kiteme added.
The researcher further disclosed that gums and resins are best produced at attitudes below 1,500.
“This sector has not been fully exploited, but we need to look at such a sub-sector/value chain because the same species that gives us gum is the same species that the pastoralists are targeting for environmentally destructive practices like charcoal production,” he lamented.
How communities can benefit from the vegetation in the rangelands
According to Kiteme, if these pastoral communities were educated and sensitised to understand the benefits of acacia trees, such a move would powerfully transform their livelihoods.
“They need to be told that if you cut one tree to produce one bag of charcoal, which will give you, at the very best, between Sh800 and Sh1,000, and you use this for one week, then you go back and cut down another one; once you do this, then this acacia will never be there again,” he explained.
In his own words, Kiteme told Y News, “And you will continue to cut, and this is responsible for the wanton destruction of vegetation in the rangelands.”
Kiteme pointed out that if this is transformed into a producing entity, a private sustainable harvesting practice, the locals would primarily benefit from it.
“So, tap this tree today, get the amount you are going to get, and retain it there for next week and the coming generations; the vegetation shall remain intact, and the livelihoods shall be supported,” he added.
Meanwhile, Marsabit County departmental officials, led by the Chief Officer for Environment and Climate Change Abdullah Sheikh, the Chief Officer for Natural Resources, Forestry, and Wildlife Pauline Marleni, and the Director of Environment Janet Ahatho, noted the cooperative’s role in embracing sustainable practices.
They stressed the importance of building local capacity in line with the County’s environmental and development agenda.
