LOCAL COMMUNITY PERCEPTION ON BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF CONSERVING KIANGO’NDU FOREST IN THE EASTERN MOUNT KENYA FOREST BLOCK

Abstract

Forests are crucial to a country’s health and development as they are important in providing environmental, economic and social benefits. Mount Kenya Forest in particular is a major water catchment area in Kenya. Unfortunately, communities living close to the forests carry out unsustainable extraction of forest products that puts the forest ecosystem under serious pressure. It is therefore necessary to understand the nature of interactions between the communities and forests and encourage support of the communities in the conservation and management of the forest. The main aim of this study was to determine the local community perception of the benefits and challenges of conserving the Kiango’ndu montane forest located in the Eastern Mount Kenya forest block. The study established the challenges that the communities face as a result of living close to the forest, their perceptions of the benefits they derive from the forest and their willingness to participate in conservation of the forest. The study was done through a qualitative ethnographic approach employing questionnaires, interviews and observations. The main target group was the forest communities bordering the forest. The study revealed that the local community enjoyed a diversity of economic, ecological, aesthetic and cultural benefits from the forest. However, they incurred losses caused by wild animals such as property and crop damage, loss of time spent chasing away wild animals, bodily injuries and even fear of wild animals. However, most of the respondents were willing to participate in conserving the forest. The study substantiates the need to resolve the human-wildlife conflicts as well as encourage initiatives geared towards enlightening local residents on updated forest/wildlife conservation practices and legal rights such as compensation of wildlife related losses.