Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Rachuonyo south subcounty, in conjunction with the government institutions are in a race to rehabilitate degraded parts of wire forest through various creative initiatives
Wyclife Ochieng the project officer for the Mango Tree Orphan Support Trust the lead organization in the conservation effort says they target to plant 100,000 tree seedlings in the next two years.
Through ‘Our Lives, Our Land’ project, Mr Ochieng said last year they planted 10,000 tree seedlings.
Wire Forest, covering approximately 387.7 hectares, has some of its sections left barren of trees and need serious replenishing according to Wire Forest Station officer Mr Fredrick Ndiga.
Ochieng said ‘Our Lives Our Land’ is a three-year programme funded by Noel Parkston in the UK at a tune of approximately Sh3 million to support the rehabilitation and protection of trees in Wire Forest and other degraded areas.
“We are working in collaboration with Kenya Forest Services, WIFOMA and also the community members,” he said when they planted 5000 seedlings at wire forest Wednesday.
Through ‘our lives and our land’ project, the officer says they are running field schools, which is a household economic strengthening project meant to capacity-build the households around the forest so that they avoid destroying the forests but enhance protection.
They have other projects like beekeeping, organic kitchen gardening, tree nurseries and also, they distribute seedlings to community members which the officer says is meant to empower the community so that they do not encroach into the forest, cutting trees for firewood and charcoal.
“We are targeting to plant around 100,000 tree seedlings in the next two years and we hope to achieve that target. We appreciate the community, the local administration and the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) for the support they have been giving us.” Mr Ochieng said during a tree planting event.
The Mango Tree Orphan Support Trust official appreciated partners and the community members volunteering to help plant trees. He said apart from Wire Forest, Mango Tree also distributes tree seedlings to primary schools.
“In the last two weeks we distributed around 6000 tree seedlings to schools around Kosele area and Wang’chieng’ in Rachuonyo North sub-county,” he said.
The schools where the organization distributed seedling he said include Ochunyno Primary School, Kosele Secondary School, and Nyawango secondary and also to community members around these schools.
Chrispine Osunga, the chairperson Wire Forest Management Association (WIFOMA), says with their tree planting project named Re-greening, they are, in partnership with other organizations are upgrading degraded parts of Wire Forest.
Wifoma is a community forest association (CFA) formed in september,2012 and according to Mr Osunga it plays the roles of providing and identifying sustainable forestry and related priorities affecting forests and developing and implementing plans on sustainable forestry prioritized by the local community among others.
“We started the project last year, in partnership with Kenya forest service (KFS) and the Mango Tree Orphan Support Programme
During this month of May he said they have planted 5000 tree seedlings with a spacing of 3 m by 3 m, covering 5 hectares of Wire Forest, saying the re-greening project aims to rehabilitate the degraded parts of Wire Forest.
“We decided to come together as community forest association (CFA) together with stakeholders’ institutions around the forest so that we can rehabilitate the ruined parts,” he said.
Herbert Imbuka Rachuonyo South Sub County Forest Officer appreciated the community for volunteering to help in planting trees to conserve the forest and mitigate challenges of climate change.
The officer who also participated in the tree planting exercise Wednesday said they have been training farmers to raise quality seedlings which they distribute to schools, chief camps, administration police areas and many other sites where there is space.
“The 5000 seedlings planted today are from indigenous tree species,” the forest officer said.
Imbuka said in all this they consider the presidential directive that targets raising about 15 billion trees within the next 10 years and appealed to the community members to love the forest and support the initiatives for the present and future generations.
He lauded the collaboration of the non-governmental organizations and government institutions in the conservation of Wire Forest urging them to continue with the effort.
Fredrick Ndiga Wire Forest Station officer, lauded the continued partnering with WIFOMA and the Mango Tree Orphan Support Programme to conserve and protect Wire Forest.
“We did the same last year and we are anticipating doing more in the future,” he said when he addressed the media.
He said the partnership has been very pivotal in the conservation efforts saying it has brought the forest officials closer to the community.
“The level of participation is very high,” he said as he still appealed for more cooperation and engagement of more stakeholders
Ndiga said the collaboration with other organisations has reduced the poaching of trees which he said has gone down compared to the years when CFA did not exist saying “With CFA and WIFOMA, those illegal activities have reduced.”
The officer appealed to the members of the public to also plant trees in their respective farms inasmuch as they are planting in the gazetted areas.
“Even the business people, just plant trees wherever you are, in your places of work, along the road and even plant along the rivers,” he said.
He said they will give every stakeholder a portion of space within the forest if they are interested.
“We are intending to engage with the technical and vocational colleges, and in the coming weeks they would be inviting them for a site visit so that they can see where they intend to plant the trees,” he said.
By Moseti Julius
