CONSERVATION AND ENERGY

CONSERVING MEDICINAL PLANTS

In parts of western and central Kenya, unprecedented levels of demand for rare medicinal and aromatic plants for use in natural remedies and cosmetics is causing rampant habitat destruction in sensitive ecologies already suffering the effects of climate change - leading to huge loss of biodiversity. For smallholding farmers struggling to make a living, the wild-harvesting of medicinal plants can provide an important source of supplementary income. Many such plants are now critically endangered, and yet they play an important role in the interconnectedness of local flora and fauna, contributing to the stability of ecosystems as a whole. Moreover, isolated rural communities can have little access to state health care and rely entirely on the traditional medical knowledge of local healers that have for generations harnessed these medicinal plants for the health and wellbeing of their communities. 

CONSERVATION AND ENERGY

CONSERVING MEDICINAL PLANTS

Pragya is working to conserve and protect the medicinal and aromatic plants in Kakamega rainforest in Kakamega county, through a combination of grassroots capacity-building activities with local-level advocacy. 

Our conservation package begins with awareness-raising, delivering local conservation awareness programmes adjusted to adults, youth and children. We have developed location-specific conservation material for distribution by Community-Based Organisations, covering topics including Kakamega forest and its herbal wealth, the value of medicinal plant species to humans, the major threats to local habitats, and conservation strategies for vulnerable species. Schools and communities are engaged with for a range of conservation education programmes.

Pragya’s research on medicinal plants in the region has helped to inventory the native medicinal species in western and central Kenya, map the areas in which they are found, and assess the threats to them. Based on this, we work to empower communities to protect and monitor high-risk locales, forming Community Conservation Councils responsible for the governance of vulnerable zones on the fringes of the forest abutting human habitations. These Councils are trained in biodiversity and habitat monitoring, and are supported to establish ‘Community Protected Areas’(CPA), areas of depleting medicinal plant wealth that the Councils protect through social / physical fencing. The CPAs also function as points for youth-engagement, with young ‘biodiversity managers’trained to monitor and record medicinal plant density and distribution in these vulnerable zones, with replanting activities where necessary, encouraging a sense of investment an ownership and so promoting future conservation efforts as the youth of today become the community guardians of tomorrow. 

As a final measure, Pragya works to empower communities for grassroots conservation advocacy. We conduct conservation advocacy training programmes with community groups in Kakamega, enabling these groups to engage with local and state decision makers, such as Kenya Forests Service, as effectively as possible. The community-state dialogues that this aspect of our work has facilitated has had demonstrable success in securing state commitment to protecting vulnerable forest areas and endangered species of medicinal plants.

These conservation initiatives do not deprive communities of access to the medicinal plants they need for traditional medicine or for generating income; in fact, Pragya works to secure the long-term availability of these plants through supporting their sustainable cultivation in tandem with conservation efforts – see our Livelihoods programme for further details on this pioneering work.

CONSERVATION AND ENERGY

CONSERVING MEDICINAL PLANTS

GEOGRAPHY / LOCATION

The programme on Conserving Medicinal Plants has been/ is being implemented in the Kakamega county in western Kenya.

CONSERVATION AND ENERGY

BIODIVERSITY AND HABITAT MANAGEMENT

In the arid and semi-arid counties of Turkana, Samburu and Laikipia, climate change is driving persistent water stress and increasing the frequency and severity of drought episodes, posing a serious and escalating threat to the region’s fragile ecosystems in an already harsh climate. By contrast, western Kenya is home to Kakamega forest, the region’s only rainforest, a lush ecosystem and biodiversity hotspot comprising several species of threatened and endangered plants, and the highlands of central Kenya are thickly forested with evergreen forests. Many of the species in these forests areendemic to the region, and in turn support diverse wildlife. Local residents are very poor however, and struggling communities bordering the forest often exploit the forest’s resources in an unsustainable manner, causing rampant habitat destruction and threatening the delicately balanced ecosystem, which has rendered several as IUCN-red listed or CITES featured.

CONSERVATION AND ENERGY

BIODIVERSITY AND HABITAT MANAGEMENT

Pragya’s Biodiversity and Habitat Management work comprises several elements to counter threats to vulnerable ecosystems and mitigate their impacts, empowering communities for grassroots habitat monitoring and management. 

Our work begins with community awareness-raisingof the threats to local habitats and ecosystems. We run community awareness programmes, targeting a cross-section of community members with a focus on farmers, women, traditional healers, and youth, and designed to encourage participation in local habitat conservation and instil a sense of connection to and responsibility for the natural environment.

Pragya supports communities to establish Community Conservation Councilsto develop localised conservation strategies and coordinate and manage conservation activities across the community in a manner suited to local cultures and traditional knowledge. These Councils are responsible for identifying and managing Community Protected Areas, designated areas particularly at risk of biodiversity loss to be monitored by local youth and protected through a combination of measures - see especially our work Conserving Medicinal Plants in Kakamega. Pragya works collaboratively with Community Conservation Councils to reduce avoidable human pressure on wild resources through Common Property Resource Management, training the community in the sustainable use of shared land and water resources. In the northern ASALsfor example, we survey water sources and work with the Councils to protect and revitalise depleted and polluted water sources, through a combination of fencing, reforestation, and developing natural depressions and rock catchments for rainwater harvesting.

We also empower the Community Conservation Councils to advocate for effective management of habitatsthrough community-state collaboration; in Kakamega, we train local activists to engage with the Kenya Forests Service for this purpose.

CONSERVATION AND ENERGY

BIODIVERSITY AND HABITAT MANAGEMENT

GEOGRAPHY / LOCATION

Pragya’s Programme on Biodiversity and Habitat Conservation has been/ is being implemented in Kakamega county in western Kenya.