By Winsley Masese

Ochola Gaa stands on a rocky hill over-looking Lake Victoria and points to a pall of smoke billowing into the sky.

"Look at them," he says. "They will finish this forest. They are still destroying more trees."

Gaa is referring to a group of young men who make a living burning charcoal in Gwasi Forest in Suba District.

"That hilltop used to wear a ‘white cap’ (cloud of fog) and we could tell when the rain was about to fall," says Gaa, a retired teacher. "Now, it has been depleted and left bare."

His is yet another voice added to growing concern by conservationists about the future of Gwasi Forest, one of few remaining indigenous forests in Nyanza Province. Environmentalists say Gwasi, a gazetted natural forest, could be stripped bare in a few years.

Already, about half of 24 streams and rivers originating from the forest have dried up while the rest have ebbed to a trickle.

Ironically, Lake Victoria, into which Gwasi-originating waters drain poses an indirect danger to the forest.

Special trees

Special tree species used in building boats for fishermen, which are only found in the forest, have become the target of the loggers who have been stripping Gwasi to the bone. The forest has also been a source of wood fuel used in processing smoked fish.

Alarmed by the forest’s imminent death, the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (Kefri) has initiated a community driven programme to help stop it.

A Kefri researcher, Mr John Otuoma, says the forest cover on Gwasi hill reduced by 62 per cent between 1986 and 2005, leaving a closed canopy tree cover of only 11 per cent.

"Recent findings indicate that the tree cover has further declined to less than ten per cent as a result of deforestation that occurred between 2005 and last year," said Mr Otuoma.

He says the Gwasi flora is closely related to that of the Congo Basin rainforest, Kakamega and Nandi forests.

Kefri and the Department of Surveys and Remote Sensing unit, has used (Geographical Information System) GIS remote sensing techniques to evaluate trends in forest cover on Gwasi hills.

Mr Otuoma singles out farming activities within the water catchment areas as the main cause of depletion.

"The forest has been encroached upon, resulting in once perennial rivers turning into seasonal ones," Otuoma said.

Otuoma says depletion of tree cover of 536 hectares out of the original 4,833 hectares is alarming.

A senior official at Kefri, Mr Paul Ongugo, says Kenya might not meet its Vision 2030 goals if it does not stop destruction of indigenous forests that act as water catchment areas.

"Vision 2030 recognises environmental conservation as a key pillar for socio-economic development, so are the Millennium Development Goals," Ongugo says.

He says Kenya is a water deficit country affecting key sectors in agriculture and health.

Mrs Olga Limonya, a resident of Gwasi and a community worker, says following reduction of water in the rivers, women and children trek many hours to reach water sources.

She says this has denied them time to engage in other income-generating activities.

In their efforts to demonstrate to locals the importance of conserving the forests, Kefri has organised numerous workshops to sensitise the community on the role of trees in their lives.

"The research paper we came up with is aimed at informing policy makers, to take action on the dwindling forest resources," Otuoma says.

However, to reverse the trend, Kefri has initiated natural forest rehabilitation activities to restore the degraded areas.

Natural forests

"We have devised two ways of demonstrating that natural forests, if left undisturbed, can grow and probably the hills might assume their former green cover," Otuoma says.

Other organisations working to conserve Gwasi Forest include the Gwasi Hills Conservation Organisation, Osienala —an international NGO, the Kenya Forest Working Group and the Kenya Forest Reserve.

The Gwasi Forest Officer, Mr Peter Koech says protecting the forest from destruction is hindere by lack of personnel.

"There are two forest guards and no means of transport to take them to the hill. This hampers our efforts to protect the forest from further degradation," he says.

To ensure that the local community ceases to view the forest cover as the only source of income, a local organisation — the Suba Green Forest Initiative has started efforts to plant trees outside the conserved perimetre for commercial purposes.

"We realised that the greatest cause of tree felling is poverty, and to ensure that the people stay away from the forest, planting trees for commercial purposes is a way to achieve that means," says Suba Green Forest Initiative programme co-ordinator, Mr Odhiambo Ndiege.

Among the endangered tree species is the Amachuma (acacia polyacantha) used for making boats.

Another species is a species botanically known as Prunus Africana, widely used in the treatment of prostate cancer by herbalists.

Also endangered are soft wood trees used to make furniture.