Restoration of the Mau forest complex in Kenya underway

Restoration of the Mau forest complex in Kenya underway

Mau forest complex is located in the south-western highlands of Kenya. It is the biggest of the existing five major water towers in Kenya. It could be the only existing montane indigenous forest of its magnitude in the East African region. It consists of five (5) major forest reserves that host important flora and fauna. The Mau forest is important not only to Kenya but to the wider East Africa due to its water supply to 12 rivers that feed to the lakes in the region. The rivers include the Mara, Sondu, Nyando and Yala feeding to Nzoia that drains to Lake Victoria; River Ewaso Ngiro which replenish Lake Natron; Rivers Njoro, Naishi, Nderit and Makalia that supply Lake Nakuru; river Molo that feed Lake Baringo and River Kerio that feed Lake Turkana. The rivers flow through and drain in ecosystems that are important as tourists’ destinations, for example the Massai Mara ecosystem. Moreover, the dense population of the farming households neighbouring the forest benefit from the micro-climate regulation and precipitation effect from the forest.

In 1996 allocation of farmlands in the Mau forest was undertaken, with more than 60,000 hectares being annexed. Since then tree felling has been rampant, characterized by logging of valuable indigenous tree species for example Juniperous spp. and Podocurpus spp. In the resent past however, efforts by the government to remove and resettle the farming households out of the forest have been underway. The efforts by the government of Kenya in collaboration with its environmental conservation partners are timely and commendable towards avoiding of environmental disaster in Kenya. But relocating the settled farming households from Mau Forest has been an issue of national debate that has generated political heat over time. It might be agued that there is no clear cut between the decades of destruction of our own forests, periodic droughts and global climate change. However, we are aware that our rivers are drying up partly because of the loss of mountain forests.

Harun Maina Warui (PhD),
Senior Research Scientist
Natural Resource Management/Production Systems Analysis
Kenya Agricultural Research Institute
National Dry Land Farming Research Centre
Machakos, Kenya