Community Forest Associations and Community-Based Organizations: Redesigning their Roles in Forest Management and Conservation in Kenya

One of the key features of Kenyas Forest Act (2005) is Participatory Forest Management (PFM) where the management and conservation of forest resources must involve the communities around the forest resource. Participatory Forest management requires that local communities be engaged in the management and conservation activities through Community Forest Associations (CFAs). We carried out an assessment of the roles of CFAs and their objectives within the Kakamega forest landscape using a structured questionnaire. Our findings clearly show that 90 per cent of the CFAs and CBOs in the Kakamega Forest landscape are engaged in activities that are aimed at creating employment, poverty reduction, and improvements of livelihoods of the communities around the forest through sustainable utilization, conservation and management of Kakamega forest resources. Major activities of the Community-based organizations under the umbrella CFAS include public awareness, tree planting, bee keeping, and ecotourism among others. Given the level of engagement of the local communities in forest management and conservation activities, there has been a significant improvement in forest cover. The study concludes that more funding is needed for capacity training for CFAs and CBOs to enhance and fortify their forest management and conservation skills and activities whose results are clearly evident. Strengthening of CFAs and CBOs is a sure way of conserving of our water towers and increasing forest cover to the recommended 10per cent as stipulated in the new constitution and to help Mitigate against the effects of climate change. The study recommends strengthening and continued monitoring of the CFAs and CBOs to ensure compliance with their objectives.