Lembus Forests Integrated Conservation and Development Project
At the heart of dry expanses of Baringo, lies a jewell, whose posture overlooks everyone in the vicinity. The Lembus forest ecosystem is one of the remaining indigenous forest areas in Kenya, comprising a number of centrally gazetted forest blocks and unreserved, but smaller forest patches. These forests have been the livelihoods of the Tugen people dating many decades. Lying just north of the Equator, some 40km north of Nakuru, the forests have now been severely encroached on. It is for this reason that IUCN, The World Conservation Union with funding from the European Union decided to work with the local community to help rehabilitate this forest, and to conserve this forests, which provides a livelihood for thousands of people living around the Tugen escarpments.
The biodiversity of Lembus has been hardly researched, though it is known that they are the repository of some species not found elsewhere else in Kenya, for example the Brown-throated Wattle-eye and Kenrick’s Starling. The forests are the eastern most sittings of species occurring in western Kenya. The forest is also the convergence point for northern and southern migratory bird species. More importantly these forests are of immense water and soil conservation values, as well as direct local values for the people of the area. The Lembus straddle the watershed dividing the river systems of the Rift Valley and western Kenya. The Perkerra River is the major water supply of Lake Baringo.
Lembus provides an opportunity to integrate traditional and modern management practices and is in an area where the local community and the local, district and provincial administration are supportive of integrated, participatory natural resource management. Thousands of people depend on the forest directly, and there is a need to conserve and manage the forests for livelihood values, such as for grazing, firewood and medicinal plants. To help conserve the forest, and assist the local community, the project is supporting existing forest conservation efforts by the Forest Department, Koibatek County Council, other government agencies, and relevant NGOs, such as LEWASCO and others. This support focuses on the piloting of the new Forest Act in terms of participatory forest management. The project is also working with at least 3 communities to develop participatory forest management plans for some of the unreserved forest patches.
The project is also building the capacity of the Tugen communities to take control on their rights and responsibilities under the Forest Act. Capacity is required at a variety of levels, including, for example in community organization and registration, in forest management planning, being able to implement a forest management plan, as well as being able to implement the various rules and regulations that such management plans would call for. A couple of forest based community development projects have been initiated. These include bee keeping, gravity water harvesting, multi-purpose tree planting, and ecotourism. These all have a direct impact on the community’s livelihoods, and at the same time contribute to the conservation of the Lembus forests; and raise awareness on its importance to the local community, the region, the country and the world at large. The project is expected to end in October 2008, after assisting the community come up with a draft management plan, which will include a series of studies done to find out what really the Lembus are.
