Kenya to reintroduced Shamba system

By KARANJA NJOROGE

The Kenya Forest Service says communities living near forests will be involved in conservation and management of the forests through a re-branded Shamba system.

KFS Director David Mbugua said through the Plantation Establishment for Livelihood Improvement Scheme (Pelis), communities living adjacent to forests would be supported through promotion of livelihood improvement programmes.

He said community Forest Associations (CFA) would be partners in the programme, which was formerly referred to as the Shamba system.

"We will partner in forest conservation and management with the communities to encourage them to conserve and protect the forests," Mbugua said.

The controversial Shamba system involved farming where the landless were encouraged to cultivate crops on previously cleared forest land on condition they tend their crops alongside tree seedlings.

But the system inherited from the colonial era was abolished in 2003 when the Government gave all the cultivators notice to vacate forests.

In 2008, field trials were initiated in Ndundori and Bahati forests in Nakuru for its reintroduction and re-branded Pelis.

Mbugua said the process of identifying those to benefit from the re-branded system would be done transparently in an exercise that would involve KFS officers and CFA members.

"KFS will sit and deliberate with the CFAs to identify those to benefit through a balloting system," he said when he presided over the opening of the Sh7.8 million Malagat Bridge, situated in the Malagat Forest in Londiani.

The KFS toured projects in Nakuru and Kericho under Green Zones Development Support Project (GZDSP), an African Development Bank funded project that seeks to rehabilitate natural forests, restore hilltops and watersheds and promote participatory forest management.

Mbugua was accompanied by area MP Magerer Lang’at and Kipkelion DC Aden Halakhe.

The KFS boss said financial constraints hindered the organisation from effectively discharging its mandate, including recruitment of more personnel.

Mr Lang’at supported the re-introduction of the Shamba system, saying it was a faster way of regenerating the forests. Among the leading anti-Shamba system voices is Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, who contends it is open to widespread malpractice and environmental degradation.

Proponents of the system argue that it is the only way the Government can ease pressure on its forests, which are already on rapid decline.