Forest destruction has been a major problem in Kenya.  Official government statistics indicate that only 1.7% of the country is covered by forests. Kenya’s forest communities have since long been dependent of the forests for fuel wood, grazing areas especially during droughts, construction material, non-timber forest products like medicinal herbs and drinking water. Degradation is caused mainly by mismanagement, resulting in over-use of resources. Ignorance amongst the surrounding communities about the multiple values of forests and the effect of over-use on their livelihoods is common. Pressure on the forest is growing because of increasing population and conflicts about the use of the resources are many.

In this regard Tree is Life Trust (TiLT) has been supporting communities around forests in taking charge of solving environmental problems afflicting them, in an area including five state forests (Rumuruti, Shemanek, Ndaragwa Lariak and Ol Bollossat) in Central and Rift Valley regions in Kenya.   TiLT’s objective is to empower communities to actively participate in the sustainable management of forests.

Kenya enacted a new law that will guide the management of forests across the country. The Forests Act 2005 stipulates among others, the role of communities in the management of forests.

In relation to the five forests named above, TiLT aims at mobilizing, forming and assisting the five forest associations in the development of a joint forest management plan.  Once the Kenya Forests Service has approved this plan, they can begin implementing the activities stipulated in the plan in collaboration with other stakeholders.

Through a series of participatory workshops with communities surrounding forests and various governmental and Non Governmental stakeholders a problem/objective analysis was done to come up with problem and objective trees.

Several actions have been and continue to be undertaken towards formation and participation of forest associations in forest conservation including:

• Participartory development of comprensive and all-inclusive constitutions.
• Awareness campaigns on the new policy changes.
• Use of participatory tools e.g PRA as an educative process,
• Educating communities on the provisions of the new forest act using languages that they can understand e.g posters and discussions in Kiswahili.
• Capacity building of the committees in organisational aspects like leadership, conflict resolution, local governance etc.
• Sourcing and distributing of educative materials.
• Grassroots provision of awareness materials and visual aids to the forest associations & user groups and other stakeholders
• Networking Community Forest Associations and linking them to important networks –Kenya Forest Working Group, Kenya Association of Forest Users, Forest Action Network.
• Exposure visits to successful groups.
• Involvement of the Kenya Forest Service and others at all stages of Community Forest Association development.

Environmental campaigns are organized with themes revolving around these forests. This helps in drawing the attention of all members of the community to these forests and therefore ensures their commitment to conserving them.