Reflections from seeing our work on the ground in Kenya

This month I travelled to Kenya to visit the communities and local organisations with whom we are working and to spend time with our amazing local team to see the impact of our work on the ground.  

Restoring hotspots

In Kenya, we are targeting our efforts on the parts of the country where we can have the greatest impact, fastest. We call these areas ‘hotspots’. These are areas where communities are facing significant challenges of poverty and climate vulnerability as well as being key biodiversity and ecological zones where forests are degraded and wildlife is under threat.

We also identify locations where there are local organisations, such as women’s groups, who have very close connections with the surrounding communities and that are ripe for restoration. 

ITF and WWANC team looking at community tree nurseries where trees are being raised for planting in Kakamega Rainforest.

Transformational impact

The impact of our work was striking. In Iloro Forest, part of the unique Kakamega tropical rainforest ecosystem in the west of Kenya, I was able to meet with community members like Caroline Chisiai.

Caroline, alongside other members of the community and the team from our local partner, Women in Water and Natural Resource Conservation (WWANC), showed us the remarkable progress they have made in replanting 100,000 native trees across 100 hectares on the land adjoining the rainforest.

Thriving trees and communities

The trees are thriving and in time this area will merge into the existing rainforest and create a corridor for wildlife while providing long-term benefits to the surrounding communities. Caroline is one of twenty community scouts whose job it is to tend for the planted trees and work with the Kenya Forest Service to ensure that the site is well protected.  

Rose Wamalwa, founder of WWANC, (right) and Caroline Chisiai (left).

Caroline, a widow, explained how she and other women have formed a Village Savings and Loan Association group with the money they have made from the project. She showed us her house that she has rebuilt with the money that she has saved from her work as a project scout. She also showed us the fuel-efficient stove that has been installed in her kitchen as part of the project. It is with thanks to our partner, Ecologi and you, our amazing supporters, that all this is possible.

From tropical forests to semi-arid land

We travelled to diverse ecosystems from the degraded tropical rainforest of Iloro in the west to of the country to the semi-arid lands in the east of the country. Each community and landscape has different needs and they are experiencing the effects of climate change in different ways – from the erosion of hillsides to the prevalence of drought conditions.

We don’t have a one size fits all approach but work with communities to tailor each project to best suit the diverse landscapes in which we are working. It was humbling to see the dedication of the communities we visited, the commitment of each of the local partners and the skills and vision of our ITF team on the ground. I can say wholeheartedly that what we are doing, with your support, is working – it is changing landscapes and lives! 

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