As Lari residents farm in forests, incomes rise and logging drops

A tree is planted at Uplands Forest in Kiambu County during the Kenya Roads Board tree planting exercise on December 20 last year. [File, Standard]

Surrounded by tall, spindly trees in Central Kenya’s Uplands Forest, Margret Njoki and her daughter dig up a row of potatoes, their hands moving rhythmically in time with one another.

Along with the plot Njoki cultivates at home in the nearby town of Lari, this quarter acre of forest land she leases from the government means she can double her yield of kale and potatoes.