Public-private-people partnerships - a concept to combine biodiversity and economic developments in coastal forests

State of implementation/results

Project completed.

• Through the development and implementation of eight forest management plans, the project improved the management of over 30,000 hectares of forest and mangrove areas. Seven management plans have been completed and accepted by local authorities. The project team supported their implementation.
• In total, more than 250,000 seedlings have been planted on an area of more than 140 hectares at the different project sites.
• More than 6500 hectares of forest and mangroves were restored via natural regeneration.
• The project brought together 13 different institutions for the joint management of natural resources in Kwale County.
• Seven public-private people roundtable meetings took place with participation of government agencies, private companies, CSOs and NGOs on topics such as coordination of countywide tree plantings, river sub-catchment monitoring and conflicting use of resources.
• Forest management plans were developed and implemented in collaboration with members of 10 Community Forest Associations (CFAs).
• KECOFA was formed through the project, as an umbrella institution for Kwale’s CFAs and as a link to the national level institutions.
• 14 companies committed to cleaner production under the Kenya Cleaner Production Project and over 25 staff were trained on the introduction of resource-efficient production. Six companies in Kwale were recruited into cleaner production, with detailed in-plant inspections done and recommendations given.
• 40 community scouts were trained and equipped to work together with the Kenya Forest Service rangers to prevent forest degradation in relevant forest areas. This was the first community scout led alert system in Kenya. Other Counties expressed interest to learn from it and implement the same. – One tourism center was under construction in cooperation with the Kenya Forest Service and the Community Forest Association of Dzombo Forest. An interactive exhibition was designed around the topics of culture, biodiversity and conservation to inform visitors of Dzombo Forest.
• One community borehole was constructed for Kaya Forest Gandini to support the tree nursery management and forest restoration.
• 11 ombudspersons were trained as independent contact persons in conflict situations for the local communities. An article on this was published on the WWF Germany website: www.wwf.de/…
• Project interventions and achievements were widely disseminated through the monthly and bi-annual newsletters by the various WWF Kenya target groups and were well linked to other projects and regional programs.
• The project also had its own website that showed live progress of IKI project implementation and was used for restoration monitoring, which was conducted on the ground twice a year on all project sites (sites.google.com/…).
• The project website also regularly featured some of the project activities that were implemented (sites.google.com/…). During the last months of the project, these included capacity building on charcoal briquettes making technology, training on water and energy, monitoring planning of a river sub-catchment, unpackaging of Kwale County Spatial Plan for CSOs and aided compliance among private businesses to comply with the plastic ban.

Latest Update:
07/2024

Further links

• Article: Mangrove Restoration
• Video: Kwale charcoal producers trained on improved technology to conserve environment
• Tweet: Launch of Participatory Forest Management Plans
• Article: Kwale women plant trees, long for benign climate
• Twitter Account
• Video: Protecting the sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests
• Video: Meet the Kaya Forest Community
• Newsletter