0612-A1
Balozi B. Kirongo [1], Tito Mbuvi and Simon Wairungu
The Arabuko Sokoke Forest is a remnant of the East African coastal forests. It covers about 420 km2 and spans two districts - Kilifi and Malindi of the Coast Province, Kenya. The forest is internationally renowned for its rare bird species, mammals and diversity of habitats. Over 20% of Kenya's bird species and about 30% of its butterflies have been recorded in this forest, even though it represents only 0.07% of Kenya's land area. As a result, the forest has attracted the attention of many conservation organizations locally and internationally.
Rural communities living next to the forest have exploited it for their livelihoods for centuries. However, this exploitation has become unsustainable during the last 60 to 70 years. Major threats to the conservation of Arabuko include "illegal" exploitation for timber, woodcarving, building poles, firewood and charcoal and "pressure" to excise portions of the forest for settlement and land speculation. Finally, human/wildlife conflict, particularly crop raiding by elephants, is a major concern among forest-adjacent communities in their co-existence with the forest.
Currently, the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Management Team, representing four government departments - Kenya Wildlife Service, Forest Department, National Museums of Kenya and the Kenya Forestry Research Institute - are implementing a Strategic Forest Management Plan for the overall conservation of Arabuko. Of particular note are efforts to involve forest-adjacent communities in participatory forest management and forest-based income generating activities to recognize their "stake" in the forest and to share its benefits.
This paper presents a wholesome approach emphasizing community involvement, empowerment and facilitation. It is recommended that projects look at the broad area of conservation from the "people and sustainability" perspective, bearing in mind that approaches used should embrace forest research, community education, facilitation, socio-economic factors and marketing, with emphasis on ensuring sustainability of activities.
Arabuko Sokoke forest is found in Kenya on the East African Coast. It covers an area of 420 Km2 - less than 0.1% of Kenya’s land area. The forest has in the past been exploited for commercial indigenous timbers. Communities living adjacent to the forest have all along used the forest for subsistence. Arabuko Sokoke forest is an important conservation area due to its biodiversity richness. It is home to 20% of the bird species, 30% of the butterflies in Kenya in addition to numerous prized indigenous timber tree species and medicinal trees/shrubs.
The Forest Department (FD) in partnership with Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS), National Museums of Kenya (NMK) and the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) manages the forest. The officers from these four departments form the Arabuko Sokoke Forest Management Team (ASFMT). The ASFMT, local communities living around the forest and other stake holders; with financial help from the EU through Birdlife Innternational developed a Strategic Forest Management Plan (SFMP) to manage the forest sustainably for the next 25 years. The plan divides the forest into none extractive conservation zone, extractive commercial and subsistence zones. The plan further stresses on community involvement as a requisite for managing the forest sustainably emphasizing on maintaining a proactive research to meet current and future challenges to conservation. Currently some of the local communities benefit from butterfly farming (Kipepeo i.e. Butterfly project of the National Museums of Kenya), beekeeping and other income generating activities. On-farm tree planting of high value trees on shambas (small farms) adjacent to the forest to provide alternative sources of construction materials, firewood and revenue from sale of poles, is also high on the agenda. Meanwhile, plans for eco-tourism ventures are at an advanced stage.
The pressure from a growing population living next to the forest (there are 54 villages adjacent to the forest with an estimated population of 140,000) coupled with poor living standards and crop failures and/or raids by wildlife contributed significantly to "illegal" activities in the forest. Ill-defined management guidelines, which did not recognize the important role of the communities living adjacent to the forest; treating them, like "enemies of conservation" rather than partners in management, exacerbated the situation. While unlicensed exploitation for timber, woodcarving, building poles and wood fuel remain the major threats to conservation, more recently excisions for human settlement and land speculation have pitted conservationists against government officers and the communities. Human/wildlife conflicts have also had a negative impact on conservation efforts with monkeys and in particular elephants raiding crops on farms adjacent to the forest. It is prudent therefore to recognize the various roles and user demands of the diverse interest groups, and capture these appropriately; an approach advanced by the SFMP.
It is clear that for this important forest to be sustainably managed and conserved for the good of the present and future generations, a wholesome management approach which recognizes the vital role of the adjacent communities and their active participation must be put in place. Projects must approach the broad area of conservation from the "people and sustainability" perspective. Management approaches put forward must embrace all possible uses of the resource by the communities and other stakeholders. Forest research, community education and facilitation and alternative income generating activities (IGAs) need to form the cornerstone of any new management approach.
The main partners in the management of the Arabuko Sokoke are four government departments viz. Forest Department (Gede and Kilifi offices), KEFRI (Gede office), KWS (Gede office) and the National Museums of Kenya (Gede office). Other stakeholders are KARI (Msabaha office), Agriculture and rural development (Malindi office), Water (Malindi office), Social Services (Malindi office), the hotel and tourism industry, research organizations (e.g. Universities) and the Provincial Administration (Malindi and Kilifi offices). There are also some community-based organizations (CBOs) some of which have formed umbrella organizations to further their goals. One such organization is ASFADA (Arabuko Sokoke Forest Adjacent Dwellers Association) which sits on most District Development Committee meetings as well.
Arabuko Sokoke has received a fair share of attention from some donor funded conservation projects. For example in the past 10 years the following organizations have worked or are still working in Arabuko Sokoke and adjacent areas.
1. KIFCON (British ODA) 1990 - 1992
2. BASSIS (British ODA) 1993 - 1995
3. KIPEPEO (NMK) 1993 - On-going
4. BirdLife International 1996 - 2001 (January)
5. Biodiversity Conservation Programme (BCP) 2002 - 2003 (June) - on going
6. Farm Forestry (Alisei, KEFRI, EAWLS) 2001 - 2004 (June) - on going
7. USAID 2003 - 2005 - expected to start soon
The projects serve an important role as they facilitate government officers (transportation, stationery) to more effectively serve the community. This is in view of the fact that most government departments lack resources to enable them to deliver effectively.
Most projects have collaborated well with various stakeholders. However, there have been cases where some projects have tried to "force" pre-conceived ideas on what they want to support and how it is to be done unilaterally. Such attempts have ended leaving the communities worse than before (destitution, false hopes) and the local partners disillusioned. Good and effective collaboration needs to be based on trust and well-defined activities, which are synergistic in nature. It should be the obligation of the project executants to ensure that all the important interest groups are taken on board.
The stage is therefore, packed with many players representing diverse interests. However, with all these players, present projects on the ground and those upcoming must ensure that their officers foster good working relationships with government officers on the ground. This can be done by institutionalization of project activities, for example. Government officers serve an important link between the project executants and the communities, while ensuring that the started activities are continued after the project’s life. The officers can continue to offer important technical assistance and serve to backstop future emerging issues.
What is emerging in Arabuko Sokoke through observations, informal and group (ASFMT) focused discussions is a need to change our management approach from a government-centered approach to one where all stakeholders are partners with the communities duly empowered. Below, we highlight some of the timely actions needed.
1. Projects must endeavour to empower locals (facilitation, awareness and relevant education) so that the rural poor can manage resources by and for themselves.
2. New projects must seek to build upon foundations set up by predecessors (previous projects) and/or local government departments in their respective areas of coverage. It is disheartening to the community when "new" projects "play deaf" to real issues, which were partly done by previous donor-funded projects. This may call for a major shift in the thinking of donors whereby certain donor groups do not want anything to do with activities left uncompleted by organizations from certain other countries.
3. Coming projects must take sustainability very seriously. Communities must be involved directly or through CBOs with relevant government departments being involved in brainstorming, strategy setting, so that the communities can be able to continue with the activities once the projects wind up.
4. Coordination of project activities should transgress across location and district/province boundaries to increase efficiency of resource use and/or update innovations being introduced to the communities. Such an approach, we believe, would help to "stitch in time" any inappropriate interventions.
5. The role of research in furthering sustained development is underplayed by many projects, while those that do have a research component treat it as anathema. Projects must realize that local research on social structures, and including related natural resource management as well as various on-farm forestry interventions should form an integral part of poverty alleviation initiatives. In particular, a dual and participatory approach to research involving the communities from the planning, designing and execution (a shift in emphasis from the researcher to the farmer i.e. locals learning by doing) should form a cornerstone to prepare local communities to be able to design and manage their own interventions after the project.
6. Few projects unintentionally or deliberately fail to harness successful local indigenous knowledge of conservation and/or crop production. For example, on-farm tree planting initiatives need to take special interest in common successful practices and improve them by providing improved germplasm, capacity building through appropriate training, field visits and demonstration sites. Government centers can serve an important role of establishing on-station demonstration sites where local communities can pep up their knowledge thus ensuring continuity.
7. Some projects adopt an "ad-hoc" approach on the ground by laying more emphasis on activities, which offer less technical challenges albeit duplicating efforts with less diversity in the number of activities. For example, around Arabuko Sokoke at least 3 projects have a honeybee-keeping component. However, there is hardly any serious information exchange on what works and does not and/or improvements needed, marketing etc.. Many other challenging activities exist e.g. tented campsites run by locals, mushroom farming, woodlots of fast growing indigenous tree species on 30 year rotation, native fruits etc. There is need therefore, to ensure strengthened and sustained collaboration with other projects, government departments and stakeholders in the local area and nationally. This should enable adequate information exchange and reduce local repeatability of activities.
8. Efforts for strategic partnerships towards harnessing each stakeholder’s contribution and output should be emphasized. Capacity development of the local officers and communities is crucial to make them less dependent on "imported specialists". Moreover, project monitoring and evaluation should consider the views of the community/beneficiaries rather than relying solely on meting the objectives of the contracting organization (NGOs).
We are of the opinion that by integrating these thoughts into the planning and implementation mechanisms, projects will in future have bigger impact compared to the current state where very few tangible outcomes of the various multi million Shilling projects that have graced Arabuko Sokoke are evident.
In this paper we have highlighted the importance of Arabuko Sokoke as a conservation spot and a hub of socio-economic activity for the various stake holder groups. The main threats to sustainable management and conservation and the importance of a multi-faceted all inclusive management approach were discussed. We have emphasised the role of the community, and especially those adjacent to the forest as worthy co-managers in this resource and recommended their full participation in its management under the tutelage of the ASFMT (i.e. FD, NMK, KWS and KEFRI).
We have given the main interventions which if timely integrated in to the management system (a stitch in time) as highlighted by the SFMP for Arabuko Sokoke, will see the forest conserved and sustainably managed for the benefit of the present and future generations.
Finally, community empowerment in all its forms; facilitation, education, improved livelihoods through IGAs sustained partnerships, must form a corner stone of the whole management approach.
1. Arabuko - Sokoke Strategic Forest Management Plan 2002 - 2007. By ASFMT produced with financial support from EU, DFIDand BirdLife International.
2. Arabuko Sokoke Forest Pilot Project Implementation Document Ministry of Enviroment (Kenya) and ODA-UK. 1993 KIFCON, Birdlife International.
3. Coastal Forested Ecosystems Management Taskforce formation workshop held on 23rd - 24th May 1996 (KWS, FD). Supported by KWS - Netherlands Wetlands Conservation and Training Programme.
4. Howard L Wright, 1999. Arabuko Sokoke Forest Management and Conservation Project. EC DG VIII-B7-5041/95.07/VIII. Consultancy report on Forest Resources Inventory and Management.
5. Mogaka H 1993. Preliminary summary of the main findings of local utilization of Arabuko - Sokoke. Kenya Indigenous Forest Conservation Project (KIFCON). Funded by ODA - UK.
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