Money grows on Kenyan trees |
Re-planting a depleted local forest isn’t just about environmental conservation for a Kenyan community group – the effort also offers members a valuable source of income.
For two years, the ‘Ex-Lewis Self Help Group’ has been re-establishing trees on 20 acres of barren scrub at Eburra Forest in Gilgil, and just this year planted more than 30,000 mixed seedlings they had reared in local nurseries.
The 30-member group, who received tools, training and technical support from Self Help Africa, also realised a commercial dividend from their actions – as they have sold more than 18,000 seedlings to local households, to establish homestead woodlots to provide a source of fuel-wood and assist landowners by providing shelter and shade on their farms.
The group, comprising 16 women and 14 men have also run a series of village information sessions at Eburra and surrounding villages, educating households on the value and importance of forestry both as a saleable commodity, and as a means of counteracting climate change.
The enterprise is part of a scaling-up of nature-based enterprises being supported in the wider Naivasha region, and is being undertaken by Self Help Africa in collaboration with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), and the Eburra Community Forest Association (ECOFA).
David Huhoro says he was sceptical at first about the benefits of the project, but believes
that it could soon become his primary source of income. “I have sold seedlings to hundreds
of households, and there is great potential for the future,” he said.
Meanwhile, 25 members of the Lake Nakuru women’s group in Game village, Mitimingi, are now earning a dividend of €100 a month each from the production and sale of fuelsaving cooking stoves in the area.
Initially established five years ago as a poultry group, the members diversified into fuel stove production after receiving training and technical support from Self Help Africa. Group member Anastasia Gathini says that householders who buy their ‘jikos’ need to use less fuel wood for cooking every day. “Wood is scarce in this area, so there is a real benefit in a very short space of time,” she said.
Eburra Forest is a part of the wider Mau Forest Complex, a 675,000-acre indigenous forest and vital ecosystem in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province that has witnessed widespread deforestation in recent decades. |
