Inside conservation efforts to save degraded Embobut Forest

A tree nursery established by members of Sengwer community in efforts to reclaim the degraded Embobut Forest in Elgeyo Marakwet County.
What you need to know:
- Embobut, which is the main water catchment for Cherangany water tower, is facing threats from human activities.
The rehabilitation of the degraded Embobut Forest in Elgeyo Marakwet is taking shape following an afforestation partnership between the indigenous Sengwer Community, the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and the county government.
Embobut, which is the main water catchment for Cherangany water tower, is facing threats from human activities.
Despite repeated efforts by the government and conservation organisations to evict illegal settlers and restore the forest, these attempts have often been met with resistance and have largely failed to achieve long-term solutions.
But the narrative is changing.
The degraded forest is being restored after KFS partnered with the local community to establish tree nurseries for indigenous trees suitable for the local ecosystem.
So far, several acres of the forest have been reclaimed.
This comes at a time environmental experts have raised concern over the increasing demand for land for agricultural purposes, settlement, logging, and charcoal activities, which contributes to the rapid environmental degradation and subsequent effects of climate change.
They blame the wanton destruction of the country's water towers for the declined water volumes in most rivers, lakes and water reservoirs.
The experts warn that the destruction of Kenya’s five major water towers - Mau Forest, Mount Kenya, Aberdares, Cherangani Hills, and Mt. Elgon - is negatively impacting the country's economic growth despite the government’s ambition of planting 15 billion trees by 2032.
“Unfortunately, most water towers and other catchment areas have been degraded by human activities, resulting in declined water volumes. Immense environmental conservation efforts are needed to reclaim such degraded ecosystems,” said Michael Kosgei, an Eldoret-based environmental expert.
Thomas Kiptoo, the KFS North Rift head of Conservancy, said the Embombut restoration programme is aimed at promoting community participation in environmental conservation.
“We want the community to own the forest instead of viewing the natural resource as government property,” he explained.
Under the partnership, the Sengwer community, with the support of the government agency, are involved in planting of trees in degraded areas within Embobut Forest and have set up a cultural centre for preservation, promotion and dissemination of knowledge on traditional aspects of conserving the environment.
“The afforestation programme will have an impact on the government’s goal of planting 15 billion trees in 2032 while supporting the Sengwer community to preserve their culture,” Mr Kiptoo explained.
The community is one of the remaining forest dwelling paeople who occupy part of Cherangani Hills, but their way of life is threatened with extinction due to degradation of the forest.
They are part of the 2,874 squatters who received Sh410,000 each from the government in 2013 to purchase alternative land to settle, but they have encroached on the forest that forms part of the larger Cherangani Hills, one of the country’s water towers.
Declared a public forest in 1954, Embobut has a history of evictions in efforts to conserve it. The government has over the years carried out repeated evictions to move out the indigenous Sengwer community, who claim a share of it. All along, the Sengwers have insisted that they are the best protectors and conservators of the forest.
“As a community, we have demonstrated our ability to collaborate with relevant government departments in the conservation of Embobut, which is key to our livelihood,” said Elias Kimaiyo, a Sengwer community human rights defender and environmentalist.
He decried the shortage of seeds for indigenous tree species to empower the community to reclaim degraded forest land.
“We want the community, with the support of KFS and other government agencies, to take the lead in identifying the precise species of trees that will flourish in the local environment,” Mr Kimaiyo said.
In the meantime, the restoration of the degraded Cherang’any Forest received a major boost recently after the Italian government pumped Sh600 million into its afforestation programmes.
The three-year programme involves planting trees on 200 hectares of the degraded water tower.
The National Environment Trust Fund will be involved in the rehabilitation of the water tower that has been degraded through irregular and ill-planned settlements, overgrazing, uncontrolled and illegal forest resource extraction, and the conversion of forest land to agriculture, among others.