The rehabilitation of degraded forests may not be successful if the livelihoods of neighbouring communities are not taken care of, a new project has shown.

The Green Zone Project Phase II has helped the Kenya Forest Service to rehabilitate 136,470 hectares (337,224.1935 acres) of degraded forests.

Green Zones Development Support Project Phase II manager Jerome Mwanzia says the project has significantly contributed to improved food security, climate change resilience, enhanced community livelihoods and improved forest and tree cover.

Mwanzia says the project has at the same time contributed to enhanced ecological functions, key among them increased carbon sequestration, water flows, biodiversity and other vital conservation functions.

“You cannot take people to conserve when they are hungry,” he says.

The Africa Development Bank-funded Green Zones Development Support Project-Phase II is being implemented in 15 counties.

“We are implementing the programme in Embu, Meru, Machakos, Tharaka-Nithi, Nyeri, Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Kiambu, Nyandarua, Nakuru, Baringo, Kericho, Bomet, Nyamira and Kisii,” Mwanzia says.

Under the Green Zones Development Support Project, Africa Development Bank contributed $50 million (about Sh5.5 billion), while the government provided $5 million (about Sh547 million).

Mwanzia says the counties were selected based on levels of forest degradation, and social economic and environmental vulnerability.

The project has three main components of forest conservation and livelihood support, sustainable and inclusive value chains development, and project management and coordination.

Mwanzia says the project focuses on increasing the national forest cover and household incomes through the rehabilitation of degraded forests, improvement of forest infrastructure and community capacities and livelihoods in the target counties.

It is being implemented over a period of six years (2018-2024).

KFS has a huge mandate of conserving, protecting and managing 6.4 million acres of gazetted forests and another 420 million acres under counties.

The service also provides forest advisory to the private sector and owners of private forests.

To execute this mandate, an enormous financial resource beyond the prevailing provision by the government is needed.

It is for this reason that the Green Zones development project was initiated.

In 2018, the government sought financial support from AfDB to support the conservation agenda through Green Zones Development Support Project Phase II.

The first phase of the project was implemented by KFS and Nyayo Tea Zones Development Corporation between 2006 and 2014.

Phase I of the project contributed to the rehabilitation and protection for the regeneration of 309,000ha of degraded forestland.

Further, there was a significantly increased (by 25%) in the annual incomes of 375,912 households (40% female-headed) through direct employment and income-generating activities.

The aim of the initial phase was to improve forest cover and biodiversity conservation and contribute to reducing poverty.

But on December 3, 2019, the AfDB board approved Green Zones Phase II in a move that was aimed at consolidating the gains of Phase I.

Through the project, KFS seeks to rehabilitate 337,750 hectares (834,597.1375 acres) of degraded gazetted forest areas while improving food security and livelihood for locals.

Mwanzia says 70 per cent of the funds go to tree-growing exercises while 30 per cent go to infrastructure and capacity building.

He says in the last three years of the project, 18 million seedlings have been propagated, which has been used to rehabilitate 3,050 hectares (7,536.7025 acres) of degraded forests.

Mwanzia says 2,250 hectares (5,559.8625 acres) have been restocked while 1,200 hectares (2,965.26 acres) of agroforestry have been done.

He says six million seedlings will be grown this financial year and 1,400 hectares (3,459.47 acres) of indigenous forests will be rehabilitated.

Mwanzia says most of the money from the project was being directed to forest conservation such as supporting nurseries, buying polythene tubes, and employing skilled and unskilled casuals.

“We are also procuring seedlings for the communities to plant because our planting program is higher than what we can raise in nurseries so there is a lot of procurement of seedlings and support structures like training, infrastructure like three roads units where we fund them to rehabilitate and maintain,” Mwanzia says.

Mwanzia adds: “We are working through groups and the first groups are community forest associations. Those are the guys right next to the forest. Within the farms, they do first growing trees so that they do not rely on the indigenous species in the forests for their daily needs,” he says.

He says those a little far away from the forests are grouped into about 30 or 40 farmers and brought together and taken through one year of training.

“They get special topics and they do practical examples. If we are talking about fruit orchards, we say now we are going to try this Hass avocado and this is how we are going to do it and they replicate in their own households,” Mwanzia says.

Mwanzia says degraded forest areas in the gazetted forest, community farmlands, schools and institutions and hilltops are targeted in a move also aimed at enhancing community household incomes by Sh150,000 per household per year.

He says Sh282, 700 of community household income has been raised.

The project recently supplied KFS with eight Toyota Land Cruisers that will be used to secure forest resources.

The eight heavy-duty field utility vehicles will specifically be used by the Directorate of Forest Protection and Security in Regional offices as well as Bases.

The project has previously provided 26 double cabin pickups that are being used by Regional Forest Conservators, County Forest Conservators and those that are being used at the headquarters.

The project has also yielded 26 single-cabin pickups that have so far been deployed in 23 Forest stations and three Road units.

Other equipment that the project has yielded includes 15 units of tractors with non-tipping trailers that have been deployed in 15 forest stations, four units of nursery seedlings lorries that have been deployed in four Regional offices, four units of management and coordination vehicles for management, monitoring and evaluation and 45 units of motorcycles deployed to sub-county forest conservators, forest station managers and protection duties.