- Grazing will not be allowed in ecologically sensitive areas, including natural springs, swamps and river sources
- The Service is concerned that uncontrolled access to forest resources might result in a spike in illegal activities.
Image: GEORGE MUGO
The Kenya Forest Service has announced a raft of measures to safeguard the integrity of woodland resources and curbing illegal grazing.
On June 10, KFS issued guidelines after Environment CS Soipan Tuya announced that the state would not allow the grazing of animals in public forests.
The CS had on May 13 said the move was part of measures to protect seedlings planted in the ongoing national tree-growing campaign.
KFS Chief Conservator Alex Lemarkoko told the Star in an interview that the move seeks to tighten controls on who gets access to the forest.
“Grazing will now be controlled henceforth. This means that if a forest can only have 500 cows at a given time, then it will be 500 cows. They are also being told to register so that they can access benefits through the Community Forest Associations,” Lemarkoko said.
The conservator said the payment is now streamlined so that they can only pay after registration.
“The register can only be made when the designated grazing area has been made.”
Under the new guidelines, forest zonation and mapping will be done to identify designated forest areas suitable for grazing, as prescribed in the Participatory Management Plans concerning the forest station.
“Grazing is prohibited in plantation areas less than four years old, areas set aside for rehabilitation through natural regeneration, and areas set aside for treatment of natural regeneration,” Lemarkoko said.
Grazing will not be allowed in ecologically sensitive areas, including natural springs, swamps and river sources.
He cited the hot spots where livestock are illegally grazing in protected areas, which include Embobut, South Western Mau and Eastern Mau.
Each forest station will maintain a grazing register indicating locality, name of grazer, national identity card number, and number of animals by type, receipt number, and date of payment.
“The number of animals allowed to graze in a designated grazing area will be determined by the Forest Station Manager based on the land carrying capacity. All grazers must obtain a monthly grazing permit before grazing commences. Implementation of grazing will be done by CFA Management Committee under the supervision of the Forest Station Manager,” Lemarkoko said.
Most communities across the country do not have a grazing budget for their livestock and rely solely on forest areas.
The Service is concerned that uncontrolled access to forest resources might result in a spike in illegal activities.
Authorities are also concerned that continued grazing of large herds of livestock inside protected areas will degrade public resources.
The country's forest cover currently is 12.3 per cent. KFS manages 6.4 million acres of forests and helps counties manage another 4.2 million acres.
The state is in the process of growing 15 billion trees on 10.6 million hectares in every part of the country by 2032 to achieve a tree cover of about 30 per cent.
Lemarkoko said the service is transitioning from being more dependent on the role of the communities in enforcing the law to the enforcement.
The services will however still work with communities. The service had ceded a lot of responsibility due to the shortage of personnel.
The service has been grappling with a shortage of rangers with about 2,300 and recently listed 2,664 forest rangers.
Some 600 foresters are also in the process of being enlisted to boost the capacity of the service.
“Now with additional rangers and foresters, some important responsibilities are now shifting back to KFS but we are not losing our relationship with them,” he said.
The international recommended ratio concerning forest protection is 1:400 hectares, if the ranger is equipped.
However, the country’s ratio stands at 1:1,200 hectares, making the work of the ranger more strenuous and challenging.
The Forest Conservation and Management Act, 2016 provides for the participation of duly registered Community Forest Associations (CFAs) in the conservation and management of public forests.
This is highlighted under Section 48(2) of the Act.
The participation of the people is in line with the Constitution of Kenya’s 2010 national values and principles of governance.
Further, Section 49(1)(b) provides that a CFA granted permission to participate in the management or conservation of a forest in accordance with the provisions of the Act shall, among other obligations, formulate and implement sustainable forest programmes that shall be consistent with the traditional user rights of the respective community.
Grass harvesting and grazing, as outlined in Section 49(2)(d) a] is one of the user rights conferred on the community.
Lemarkoko said the Service will henceforth renew efforts to enforce the guidelines to ensure official grazing is well understood and implemented to wipe out cases of illegal grazing, which has raised concerns in the recent past.
The conservator added that no animals are allowed in the forest at night, between 7 pm and 6 am.
This means that no cattle enclosures or makeshift structures are permitted within the forest.
Grazers going against the new guidelines will lose any unclaimed animal that may have been arrested for being in the forest illegally.
Further, KFS may withdraw the rights of a grazer user group that breaches the outlined terms and conditions.
“Any grazer who flouts the guidelines will lose the right to graze in the forest, be prosecuted, or both.”