Vast forest threatened by destructive plants

Kenya Forest Service Lower Imenti forest conservator Vashita Kivondo at a block of the forest that has been invaded by Lantana Camara species. [Phares Mutembei, Standard]

Meru forest is under threat after the invasion of at least five plant species that are slowly eating up the forest cover. 

About 40 per cent of the 97,169 hectares of the Meru forest was affected by the invasive species as of 2019, stifling its growth.

Working with the Community Forest Associations (CFAs) and other conservation partners, the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) has managed to reclaim huge chunks of the forest.

However the threat remains, especially because members of the CFAs who had been uprooting the species and planting trees were recently ordered out of the forests.

The locals, partly credited with removing the invasive plants, had been allowed to grow food crops in some of the reclaimed areas while at the same time planting and tendering the trees, for three years.

Out of the total 97,169 hectares, 88,491 is natural, 6,269 hectares is bamboo, bushland 7,222 hectares while grassland and moorland covers 10,157 hectares.

According to Meru County Forest Conservator Wellington Ndaka, the tree cover in Meru currently stands at 29.63 per cent, while forest cover is 12.7 per cent.

But the presence of the destructive Lantana Camara and several other invasive plant species remains a major threat to conservation efforts, Mr Ndaka admitted.

"The ones which are densely affected by these invasive species are Meru station, lower Imenti, Ontulili, and Ruthumbi," Ndaka said.

In addition to Lantana Camara, others are Mauritius thorns (Bianca decapitate), a thorny, woody clambering plant that inhibits the growth of young trees, and Opuntia Opuntia, spiny cacti with similar effects on other plants around them.

Others are Dodder weed, a parasitic plant that attaches itself to healthy plants and makes them more vulnerable to other diseases and insect pests, and Xantium spinosum, which reduces forage production in pastures, grazing lands, and forests.

Lower Imenti Forest Conservator Vashita Kivondo said out of the total 2,600 hectares in Lower Imenti, most of the affected area had been reclaimed but 300 hectares were still covered by invasive species.

"We have intensified efforts to uproot the harmful species and tree planting, we want to reclaim the entire block by next year,” she said.