Kenya Forest Service wins award for montane forest project
18.06.2013
The Kenya Forest Service has won a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) award for its implementation of a sustainable livelihood development project in the country's largest montane forest.
The service received the Edouard Saouma Award, presented to institutions that have implemented with particular efficiency a project funded by FAO's Technical Cooperation Programme, for its work in the Mau Forest.
Stretching over the hills between the Rift Valley and Lake Victoria, the Mau Forest is also known as God's Bathroom as rain falls there every day for at least six months of the year. Water trapped by the Mau feeds 12 important rivers and five major lakes, providing a major water source not only for Kenya but across East Africa.
However, over the past 15 years a quarter of the forest canopy has been lost because of deforestation from illegal and ill-planned settlements, land appropriation and unlicensed logging.
FAO and the Kenya Forest Service have worked together to protect the Mau Forest and to create sustainable livelihoods for people who live close to forest areas through the establishment of Farmer Field Schools and providing the necessary support to prepare successful rural development projects. Their work succeeded in increasing the incomes of 700 forest-dependent poor households (3 500 people) and contributed to peace among opposing ethnic groups in the area.
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