0273-B1
Bernard N. Kigomo[1]
The government of Kenya, realizing that the dry forests and woodlands of the Ukambani and Maasai districts were being degraded fast, sought ways of rehabilitating these lands. The Government looked for partners and the Governments of Japan and Belgium came to its assistance. Realizing that the existing tools and available information for effective rehabilitation were inadequate, the partners decided to undertake initial investigations with a view to coming up with technologies and approaches that would ensure success in rehabilitation. It was also noted that capacity of farmers and government officers for rehabilitating woodlands was low and improvement was needed.
The paper reports on the experience gained during about two decades of research, development and extension efforts in four districts of the central dryland areas of Kenya. Over 2 000 farmers, teachers, frontline and regular extensionists were trained in tree planting, conservation and management through a programme of 80 courses. In addition, over 60 participants from eastern and southern Africa countries were trained in social forestry through eight regional courses organized annually. Commercial tree nurseries have taken root with farmers producing over 1.5 million seedlings annually. Fast-growing local and exotic species have been introduced and farmers have planted many of these in their farms. Over 500 ha of demonstration and experimental trials have been established in public land within farming areas and are accessible to farmers and schools for training. Several extension methods and approaches have been tested and a social forestry extension model has been developed through the project experience. A dryland tree technology development and demonstration Centre, covering over 1 000 ha was established and gazetted and continues to provide excellent transfer of dryland tree planting and conservation technologies. The project has also developed a huge array of training and extension materials suitable for use in dry areas, not only in Kenya but also in other drylands of Africa.
Ukambani region is located in Central Kenya. The region is occupied by the Akamba people and hence the use of the name Ukambani. In addition a small area occupied by the Maasai people and located next to the Ukambani land was involved in the present activity.
Over the last 100 years or so the Ukambani and Maasai regions have continued to attract more people and especially during the last 50 years despite the fact that the region ranges from dry sub-humid to largely semi-arid in ecological conditions. This pressure has led to continued degradation of vegetation and soils.
The semi-arid conditions of Ukambani and Maasai lands are characterized by low, unreliable and erratic rainfall. The region receives two short rainfalls of 200-300 mm between March - May and 250 - 460 mm between October - December. Evapotranspiration is high ranging from 1550 - 2500 mm per year.
Most of the land is between 500 - 1000 m in altitude with a number of hills some reaching 1600 m above sea level. The mean temperatures range from 16 - 30OC. The soils are medium-textured ferralo-orthic acrisols with the dominant type being moderately deep chromic luvisols. The flora is mainly dry woodlands and bushlands and small patches of dry forests. The two areas has medium to low potential for plant growth.
Due to the evident degradation of the natural resources in the region, the Government of Kenya entered into a partnership with the governments of Japan and Belgium to undertake a natural resource rehabilitation programme for the region. Rehabilitation of forest and tree resources was identified as a priority. Two Ukambani Districts (Kitui and Makueni) and two divisions of neighboring Kajiado District; the later largely occupied by the Maasai people, were identified as the focal areas of attention. But, before a framework of development interventions was formulated, it was realized that the available technical tools and capacity for rehabilitation were inadequate. These shortcomings were considered a priority for attention before a comprehensive rehabilitation action plan was adopted. The three governments, therefore, came up with a programme to initially perfect the tools of rehabilitation intervention with the following objectives in focus:
(i) To improve capacity of extension service and farmers in dryland forest rehabilitation;
(ii) To establish methods of seedling management and tree establishment;
(iii) To establish restoration possibilities for degraded woodlands, soils and soil moisture regimes;
(iv) To select, develop and promote high value timber and food trees to fit into alternative livelihood commodity development options; and
(v) To develop a social forestry extension model for arid and semi-arid areas.
A Social Forestry rehabilitation project was thus initiated in 1985, which has since the inception made the following interventions and achievements:
Courses on social forestry training for dry areas, for farmers, teachers, women groups and extension frontline service were conducted. Eighty training courses, with more than 2000 participants, on tree nursery, establishment, protection and aspects of tree uses were conducted by 1997.
In addition to the national courses, regional courses on social forestry were conducted covering dryland tree technologies, extension methodologies, policy formulation to promote social forestry in drylands and the role of forestry in enhancing conservation and mitigating desertification in the Eastern and Southern Africa region. Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the host Kenya are the regular participants of the Regional Social Forestry for drylands training course. Twenty (20) participants from the region are trained annually and to date since 1999, some 160 participants have trained in the social forestry course. Of the 5 weeks duration of the course, the regional participants spend 2 weeks in the project districts to be exposed on the lessons and experiences in tree and environmental rehabilitation of drylands.
2.1 Seedling propagation and nursery management
22 commercial small-scale nurseries and 32 small-scale nurseries were promoted in three districts of Ukambani and Maasai (Kitui, Makueni and neighbouring Kajiado). Women groups managed 70% of these nurseries, while groups comprising both women and men managed the remaining 30%. The focus of promotion of tree nurseries were propagation and nursery management of seedlings, tree planting in farms, and income generating opportunities. A breakthrough on the germination, propagation and raising of a problematic tree, Melia volkensii, is notable since the species grows fast and produces high value and durable timber under local farming conditions.
Nursery activities were promoted for ten years (1985-1995). After five years (2000) since the ceasing of formal intervention, an evaluation was carried out, which revealed that although 25% of the contact groups stopped nursery activities, some 18% new groups had taken up nursery activities and there were more individuals, some who were part of the fall out groups, that had taken up to tree small-scale nursery activities. But what was more interesting is the fact that the estimated total annual seedling production by small-scale nurseries had changed from 550,000 (1993) to a total of 1,245,000 (2000). In addition, among the seven activities of the women and women/men groups, tree nursery activities moved from a general sixth position to third or fourth positions in importance. Groups and individual nursery owners within the R & D farms in Kitui and especially Makueni district have made income from sale of seedlings ranging between US$ 900-2500 per year. The higher earners, especially individual nursery owners, gets more income through sale of seedlings of grafted mangoes and in few cases citrus, which fetches two to three times the price of un-grafted seedlings.
2.2 Tree establishment and Management
Several methods were proposed for use by farmers to enhance establishment of tree seedlings under dryland conditions. More than 500 ha of experimental and demonstration plots were established. As part of the activities of technology development, some extension approaches like “model farmer”, “small scale nursery”, “core farmers” and “peoples plantations”, were tried for disseminating the developed technologies to farmers. Furthermore mobile shows were used to demonstrate technologies locally to farmers. For example, in 30 such mobile shows, at different veniues, some 7345 participants were reached in about one third of the Ukambani district.
The main constraint to dryland forestry practice is inadequate moisture to ensure establishment of seedlings. Four water conservation/harvesting methods were widely tested and an evaluation of this effort indicated that the use of soil structures to concentrate water to the seedlings has been commonly adopted by over 40% of tree growing farmers. Use of terracotta water retention material, which was also been promoted, proved to be expensive for the small-scale farmers. Where water is available the recommended watering regimes and schedules are used almost 100% by the tree growing farmers.
Through a random survey carried out by the project, it was found that more than 50% of the people who received technical information on tree planting make use of such knowledge. In addition, all the contact farmers for dissemination of information on different technologies reach their neighboring farmers especially through friendly and purposeful visits.
2.3 Promotion of high value timber and fruit trees
In addition to use of trees in rehabilitating degraded vegetation and lands, a deliberate effort was made to select high value trees as incentive to tree planting. Such trees included Melia volkensii (indigenous, fast growing tree, which is resistant to termite), Dalbergia melanoxylon (an indigenous slow growing but highly valued for wood carving), Terminalia brownii (indigenous and favored for its good form and resistance to termite), Senna siamea (exotic and prioritized for its fast growth and therefore quick provision of fuelwood), Mangifera indica (a fruit tree that has become successful), and Citrus sinensis (for its adaptability and fruits). It has not been possible to get the proper coverage of these species. It is, however, estimated roughly that during the last 5 or so years, M. volkensii has gained a collective cover of about 50 ha, 5 ha for D. melanoxylon, 5 ha for S. siamea, 3 ha for T. brownii and over 60 ha for M. indica. These cover of the target timber and fruit tree species is likely to increase since the mood of tree planting is high due to the promotional lobbying done by the project.
Due to over exploitation of woodlands and especially overgrazing, charcoal production and firewood collection, recovery of vegetation becomes difficult and slow. Monitoring of recovery of woodlands was possible after an area was excluded from grazing for a period of as short as one to two years. Seedlings of Commiphora Terminalia and Acacia species regenerate immediately an area is excluded from animal grazing and since these are not browsed, the open areas are fast covered. The success of vegetation recovery after grazing exclusion is an initially quick re-establishment by a dense shrubby layer. The dominant species in the shrub layer are Hermannia oliveri, Aspilia mossambicensis, Solanum incanum, Chloris roxburghiana and Sporobolus fimbriatus. This layer creates a favorable condition for the quick establishment of the drought woodland species dominated by Commiphora africana, Acaica senegal, A. tortilis, A. mellifera, A. brevispica and Terminalia brownii. Within two to four years some of the species grows to heights beyond the browsing levels by goats. This is a successful approach that has been promoted in the Ukambani districts and is largely now being used by the animal range management farmers in restoration of degraded woodlands and thus providing more foliage and tree raw materials for various and more sustainable uses by the owners.
To enhance transfer of technologies to farmers, schools, colleges and extension service providers, several forms of publications have been produced through the Ukambani development initiative. Nineteen technologies have been developed and six of these have been verified on farm. Four technical reports, 13 manuals and three guidelines have been produced to support field demonstration. In addition to this support, three videos on tree production on farms and a CD-ROM were produced. Recognizing the low local command of the English language the project has produced a simple English newsletter but more important has translated these into the common national language, the Kiswahili. Thus, a total of 15000 copies of 5 issues of Miti ni mali (tree is money) Newsletter and 6000 copies of Miti Mashambani (Trees on farm) newsletter were distributed between 1997 and 2002. Three regional seminars, a workshop and several project staff exchanges within East Africa helped in transfer of technologies and useful exchange of information.
As a result of an experience on social forestry and tree planting technologies development in dry areas of Kitui, Makueni and Kajiado Districts of Kenya since 1985, a Social Forestry Extension Model has been developed by the Kenya-Japan supported dryland initiative. The model comprises of the foundation of continuous development of technologies to support changing management needs with time, a framework of assimilation of new technologies by farmers through on-farm adaptive trial-cum-production trials and a thatching of extension approaches, a number of which have been mentioned in the sections above. It is expected that extension service and farmers would benefit from the model. The project proposes to develop soon appropriate guidelines for handling and putting in practice the various aspects of the extension model. A Belgium supported drylands forestry intervention has taken to the use of the project experience to develop four-district management action plans for sustainable use by the extension service and farmers in the Ukambani and Maasai districts.
The intervention accounted briefly above for the case of Ukambani and neighboring Maasai region in Kenya provide important experiences and lessons, which are being put in practice in the area. The experiences are potentially viable for use not only in other dryland areas of Kenya but also of Africa. Capacity of farmers and extension service in rehabilitation of degraded drylands has been improved not only in the area of the project but also in the Eastern and Southern African region where participants from the regional countries have gained experiences of the project for the last 8 years. Several intervention technologies have been developed and their use recorded verifiable impacts in reversing degraded dryland forests and woodlands into more sustainable use of the vegetative and other biodiversity resources therein.
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| [1] Kenya Forestry Research
Institute, P.O. Box 20412 Nairobi, Kenya. Email: [email protected] |