The indigenous trees in Karura Forest, a gem nestled close to the heart of the city, are meant to offer a serene escape for those running away from the urban hustle.
The Kenya Forest Service has been replacing exotic trees with indigenous alternatives, amid online uproar.
Chief Conservator of Forests Alex Lemarkoko says the replacement is a normal forest management protocol and there is nothing to worry about.
“What we are doing is for posterity, we are doing it for our children by making sure in the next 10 years, Karura Forest will boast of being a microsystem that has diverse tree species and other fauna,” he says.
The ongoing replacement seeks to make the forest more serene. Karura Forest is in the periphery of Nairobi.
At 2,572 acres, it is one of the largest gazetted urban forests in the world. The forest has nearly all the 605 species of wildlife in Nairobi, including three types of antelopes.
KFS manages the resource in conjunction with Friends of Karura, a Community Forest Association comprising Kenyans and other nature enthusiasts.
It is a 20-minute drive from the Nairobi CBD and can be accessed from two gates, one along Kiambu Road and the other along Limuru Road.
Exotic trees are those that originate from regions far from the location where they are planted while indigenous are trees that are native to a specific region and have evolved naturally.
“At pre-independence, the policy was to provide fuel-wood for the locomotive industry and therefore, all the forests within the railway line and particularly within the major urban areas had to have eucalyptus plantation because they provide high calorific value wood material,” he says.
The chief conservatoir says policies have since changed adding that they must also be sensitive to dynamism of factors of the environment.
“They [visitors] come to have an opportunity of quiet time and reflect on nature. Eucalyptus trees are not suitable for this kind of environment. They are monoculture and have a tendency of dominating an area, ensuring other species do not grow,” Lemarkoko says.
He says they want to change the biodiversity of Karura Forest by planting more indigenous trees and removing species such as eucalyptus.
