Community Empowerment Facility Profile

BACKGROUND

Forests are very crucial to a country's health and development. In Kenya , it is estimated that the forest cover is less than 2% of Kenya 's land area. Forests provide essential services to the nation: it is estimated that forest products and services annually contribute 7.0 billion shillings to the country's economy and directly employs 50,000 people while another 30,000 are indirectly employed in the sub sector. Nevertheless, the State has not still been able to define and come up with suitable policies to guide the use and exploitation of these resources, both within the forest areas and adjacent to them. The State has also been unable to come up with a suitable policy to guide local communities on the use of land adjacent to the forests, and other important areas holding natural resources. Local communities especially in the rural areas depend on forests for provision of wood, fuel wood, and non-timber forest products for their livelihoods.

Sustainable forest management can only be achieved through involvement and active participation of the local communities and co-operation of the government administration. The forest adjacent communities are the primary users of forest products and services and therefore their contribution to the resource management and conservation should not be underestimated. One big challenge in the country is to work with those cultivators who have been benefiting from cultivating forest land through a forest management, widely known as the shamba system in Kenya . This is a system which has in some instances propelled destruction of the forest (as is the case of Eburru), or afforestation, as is the case in some other forests in Kenya . This system has gone through a series of changes that have posed additional pressure on forest lands. Some of the changes include moving from residential cultivation where the cultivators were allowed to live and cultivate in the forest to Non Residential Cultivation (NRC) where they moved out of forest but allowed to cultivate.

In Eburru most of the people living around the forest have legal documents (title deeds) to the ownership of the land they sit on. However, a few others do not have these vital documents and are considered as squatters. While some forest dwellers ( Dorobos) still live in the forest, however a few months ago, the government gave notice to all squatters to vacate the forest. Eburru forest is indeed one of the few remaining community managed forests in Kenya , with ecological and biodiversity value and provided an important water catchments for three Rift Valley Lakes. In Eburru, the forest is threatened with charcoal burning, forest fires, poaching of cedar posts, forest encroachment through illegal grazing and unplanned cultivation and settlements within and around the forest. There has also been no policy to guide the establishment of farming systems around this forest, including the famous shamba system that has caused havoc to the forest. As a result, 90% of the forest has been cultivated or encroached, water sources have dried up, and most of the land has become un-cultivable.

While the threats to forests are immense, however the government has recently passed an act in parliament to allow communities to come into partnership with the forestry department in management of the forest reserves -both community forests and government owned forests. This new Act provides a wide range of Participatory Forest Management (PFM) alternatives. It provides for the establishment of State Forests, Local Authority forests and private forests as well as for the joint management of any forest. It is thus apparent that there are a number of options that this project could explore and ensure that the people of Eburru benefit from the forest and the resources the land can provide.

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Intervention:

The Project "Eburru capacity building and community empowerment" is intended to enhance the institutional capacity of VFA and its member community based organizations in engaging the government for the co-management of natural resources in the Eburru forest. The project purpose is to foster a facilitation process that would help communities to develop strategies in articulating their farming issues regarding access to and management of forest resources.

The project intends to deal with issues on land pressure through some of the alternatives to forest use, and sustainable land use. These include farm forestry, organic farming, and alternatives such as natural products from the forest. Making the community understand the forest and land values will also enable them deal adequately with the problem on farm pressure.

To achieve the purpose, the project proposes to mobilize, inform and educate the beneficiaries through meetings and workshops. The other logical step would be to facilitate the formation of structures that would facilitate implementation of identified actions. These structures would provide a platform for negotiating and advocating for their rights.

Overall objective:
The overall objective of the project is to restore and sustain biological, aesthetic, economic and cultural values of the Eburru forest, as the farming and financial needs of the local communities are addressed.

Specific objectives:

•  To organize communities at the local level by building their capacity to be able to take a lead for all local initiatives on managing resources.
•  To help marginalized people to participate in controlling and benefiting from natural resources, as well as influencing decisions on variety of policies and laws concerning natural resources.
•  To train local communities on alternative enterprises around the forest, and pilot a number of them with selected groups.
•  Enhance good governance in forest management through advocacy, education and awareness creation.
•  Rehabilitation of selected parts of Eburru forest with the original vegetation.
•  Piloting some land resource based enterprises to serve as examples for good land use, and benefits that could be accrued from sustainable utilization of land, and its renewable resources.
•  Enhance the institutional capacity of VFA and the partner Eburru Conservation Committee to address all land related issues in the division, and contribute in land policy issues in East Africa.

Activities and results:

The main activities to be carried out are:
. Community mobilization meetings;
. Divisional intensive workshops;
. Community trainings;
. Negotiations with the Forest Department;
. Monitoring and evaluation and establishment of forestry and land related enterprises

  The expected results are:
•  A rehabilitated forest;
•  A more watery and productive local environment;
•  Better living standards from benefits accrued from enterprises born from forests;
•  Organized communities who are able to lead in local initiatives on resource management;
•  Clean water for the people living around Eburru forest;
•  Communities participate in controlling and benefiting from natural resources and influence policies and laws governing resources. 

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WHO WILL BENEFIT?

Eburru forest is located at the border of Narok District and Naivasha Sub-District , and rises from about 2400 to 2800 m above sea level. The forest covers an area of 8760 hectares. The area covered by the project will be all that area adjacent to the Eburru forest, in Eburru and Ndabibi locations. Approximately 500 square kilometres will be covered by the project, not considering the forested area. The project hopes to work with the people directly, as these are the ones who impart on the forest and land resources. Approximately 10,000 persons will be directly imparted on directly by the project, either through benefits from the income generating activities (IGA), or participating in the project process. Of these, 2,000 will be school going persons.

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TARGET AREA AND BENEFICIARIES

The overall objective of the project is to restore and sustain biological, aesthetic, economic and cultural values of the Eburru forest, as the farming and financial needs of the local communities are addressed.

Specific objectives:

•  To organize communities at the local level by building their capacity to be able to take a lead for all local initiatives on managing resources.
•  To help marginalized people to participate in controlling and benefiting from natural resources, as well as influencing decisions on variety of policies and laws concerning natural resources.
•  To train local communities on alternative enterprises around the forest, and pilot a number of them with selected groups.
•  Enhance good governance in forest management through advocacy, education and awareness creation.
•  Rehabilitation of selected parts of Eburru forest with the original vegetation.
•  Piloting some land resource based enterprises to serve as examples for good land use, and benefits that could be accrued from sustainable utilization of land, and its renewable resources.
•  Enhance the institutional capacity of VFA and the partner Eburru Conservation Committee to address all land related issues in the division, and contribute in land policy issues in East Africa.

IMPLEMENTATION

Once this programme gets started, initial contact with the target people will be through letters to the already identified partners, and any other that may have come up, and subsequently meetings would be conducted to discuss the outcome of the proposal, and the way forward. A total of 4 workshops will be held, with the fourth being an intensive workshop that will signal the commencement of the programme on the grassroots. The project hopes to work hand in hand with Mau Community Forest Association, who also has had some funding from the International Land Coalition for a very similar project. Two of MACOFA staffers have great knowledge in forestry issues, and more so in the formation of Community Forest Associations which VFA will facilitate in the project. A team from the project area will also visit the MACOFA project to learn a few techniques. Staffers from MACOFA will also be invited to facilitate a TOT workshop by the project, and make inputs into the workshops.

In the meetings : During the four meetings participants will discuss the need for a coordinated effort in forest resource access and management, and the essence of EBCEP (Eburru capacity building and community empowerment project), and possible structures. Experts on land law, as well as forestry law will be invited to talk about the existing policy framework and opportunities available to the local communities to participate in managing and utilizing their forest resources in partnership with the Forest Department. After each of the meetings participants will be requested to share the meeting experiences with the other members of their groups and other groups that are not represented. They would then organize local meetings to select the delegates that will participate in the fourth meeting, which will give a go ahead for the project.

The fourth workshop: This workshop will discuss in details the provisions in the existing policies and strategies needed to establish resource management partnership with the government through the Forest Department where the local communities will be able to benefit from the forest resources and services under the partnership. It will also be able to ratify a plan of action to be taken in the two years, in partnership with the donor and VFA. Experts in land law, forestry law, resource law and all policies will be invited to give inputs on the policy provisions and strategies that could be used to engage the government in the negotiations. Analysis of the structures that require to be put in place in order to realize the project goal would be done and the role of workshop participants in facilitating the actions outlined.

The workshop will also be able to come up with an agreement as to who will represent them in future dealings in the project, either by institutionalizing the Eburru Management Committee, or forming another institution that will take their interests at heart. This is the institution the VFA Technical team will work with. VFA will take the advisory role to ensure that lessons learnt elsewhere are put into consideration to enable a success of this project.

Partnership with Forest Department: Although Eburru forest is ranked as a community forest, the government, through the forestry department is the custodian of this forest. As such it will be imperative that the department is involved from the word go. Great effort will be made to engage the government and ensure they understand all the vices of ECBCEP and its importance to improving biodiversity conservation, and ensuring peoples livelihoods are on the number one list. Research has shown that in areas where local people are involved in management of a forest resource, management practices are very well realized. Relevant government officers would be informed and engaged in the process to allow them support the initiative.

Other stakeholders : generally the empowering process will ensure that land tenure rights are enjoyed by all the people living in the project area. The empowerment will enable them negotiate adequately with the government, with the help of the project. It is important to note that 75% of the people living here have legal ownership of the land, a fact that contributes to sustainability of the intervention. However, the 25% without title deeds could also be involved in some of the activities that are group oriented such as ecotourism.  

In general, the squatters living on the Agricultural Development Corporation land adjacent to Eburru forest have an aim of owning that land. ADC is a government owned corporation that is no longer active. ADC land has been distributed to people through sub division, and ownership through a process that the government has introduced. However, there is always interest among powerful individuals whenever such chances for new land ownership comes, and where purchasing of land is not involved. Yes, the project is aware of such a possibility. In any case, the empowering and capacity building process that has been planned by the project will enable the people presently occupying such land to resist the land from being grabbed by a few individuals. VFA will strive to educate the people on the recent legal frameworks in as far as land policy, and new forest policy is concerned. VFA will also ensure the people are in the know on their land rights, so that if a time comes that someone wants to kick them out of the land, they will be able to negotiate. Involving the government officials in the process of the project (these will form part of the audience of the workshops) and will be sent all publications and outcomes of all the meetings that the project has with the people.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

All deliberations of the meetings will be minuted and an attempt will be made to ensure that the entire process is captured on video for the lessons learnt programme, which could be core in other areas attempting similar programmes. Expected outputs for this project will include the documentation of the capacity building process, institutional setup as well as documentation that will state where the forest, resources and other outputs such as sustainable enterprises, that will all be visible, with great products.

A quarterly and final technical and financial report reflecting progress, achievements and lessons learned will make up the basis for monitoring and evaluation. The final report will also include analysis of the development of this project as well as recommendations. VFA will perform a technical and financial review in the last quarter of the project.

It will be very possible to replicate the lessons learnt from this project into other areas in East Africa, not just Kenya . For VFA which works in East Africa, this project will serve as an opener to other similar projects in Uganda , and Tanzania . All of the East African states have similar policies in forestry that allows the Eburru experience to be used as a showcase for collaborative forest management. This applies also to Kenya , where lessons learnt here will be applied in other parts of the country.

The replicability of the project will be achieved in the following ways:

•  The project will pilot and refine community based natural resource management systems and approaches. The experiences gained will be disseminated through various means, and can be applied in the development of management systems in other areas and other ecosystems;
•  The lessons learned and experience gained will be published and disseminated and can be expected to contribute to, and inform, the debate on community conservation and contribute to the body of knowledge on this topic;
•  The experiences gained will also be used to inform and influence national sectoral policies thereby contributing to forest policy development in Kenya (and beyond), and
•  The project will support the documenting and sharing of lessons and experience from the project.

Dissemination of the results will be achieved through the following means:

•  A newsletter and/or posters will be developed for dissemination of lessons learnt within the project area, and beyond;
•  Possibilities of establishing a website will be explored as a means of disseminating the projects results in and outside Kenya . The proposed information or resource centre will also not only promote the outputs of this project, but serve as a learning point for other land related issues in the region;
•  Production of VFA and ILC technical publications which are distributed locally, regionally and internationally;
•  Contribution of articles to relevant publications such as ODI Rural Forestry Development Network;
•  Study tours and exchanges with other similar projects in Kenya and other East African countries e.g. MACOFA in Mau, and Arabuko Sokoke in the coast.