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Kakamega Forest

The reforestation of the Kakamega forest and the education programs facilitated for the Kakamega community are spearheaded by the KEEP organisation (Kakamega Environmental Education Program) in Kenya.

The vision of KEEP is to educate the local community on nature-based enterprise solutions through reforestation and engage them with nature conservation.

KEEP’s mission is to create a more environmentally sustainable community for the residents that surround the Kakamega Forest providing them with opportunities to generate income in a way that benefits the environment and the health of their community.

KEEP’s primary goal is reforesting Kenya’s only tropical rainforest, the Kakamega forest. A forest that was once rich in biodiversity and lush with plants life that has seen a continuous depletion in canopy cover since the British colonisation in 1920.

Objectives include:

  • To rehabilitate 492 hectares of forest within the Kakamega forest.
  • To continue to facilitate KEEP’s Saturday Environmental Club for local high school students, providing them with conservation education and employment opportunities to work in the conservation activities of the forest.
  • Providing workshops on medicinal plants for the local community as a means of financial alleviation from medical bills
  • To create employment through bee keeping, butterfly farming and energy saving stoves in order to equip the community with nature-based enterprise solutions.

Why

The project is a community-centric approach, ensuring that all activites are of benefit to both the local community and the local environment.

Community particiaption will be constantly encouraged in order to ensure its long- term sustainability.

The nature-based enterprise solutions will generate income that will provide financial sustainability and job opportunities, while the training will ensure that local members of the communities will gain the necessary skills and abilities to maintain the projects.

This project will be an important stepping stone that will help KEEP in reaching one of its main goals: the restoration of more than 450 ha of canopy cover in the Kakamega forest.

26
hectares planted with the support of local, international and individual donors

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