Representatives from Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Costa Rica gathered to discuss strategies for achieving Kenya’s ambitious goal of restoring and conserving 10.6 million hectares of degraded landscapes and ecosystems.
The Kenya Landscape Restoration Forum, held on its second day, brought together government officials and stakeholders to shape the restoration strategy. During the forum, participants shared successful models of landscape restoration and financing mechanisms.
Ruth Tiffer, a Senior Environmental Specialist and lead at the World Bank, explained that the forum aimed to facilitate the exchange of ongoing forest landscape restoration investments in Kenya. They also presented insights from other countries’ forest landscape restoration projects to support the government in preparing the National Landscape Strategy related to forest landscape restoration investments.
The World Bank team presented preliminary findings from a cost-benefit analysis of various business models for sustainable forest landscape restoration in specific areas of Makueni, Taita-Taveta, and Kwale. These findings highlighted the importance of landscape restoration in addressing land degradation and human-wildlife conflicts, exacerbated by climate change.
The WWF team, co-organizers of the forum, shared their experiences in large-scale restoration efforts with local communities in the Amboseli-Tsavo sub-landscapes. This collaborative approach aimed to holistically restore various ecosystems, including savannahs, rangelands, and wetlands.
Johannes Kirchgatter, Officer Africa Projects at the World Wide Fund-Germany, emphasized the importance of involving local communities to restore Kenya’s diverse ecosystems, ensuring the conservation of water resources, wildlife, and livelihoods.
Martin Mulama, Manager of the Southern Kenya Landscape Programme at WWF-Kenya, highlighted the success of large-scale restoration projects in Amboseli and their potential for replication in other parts of Kenya. These initiatives have not only restored extensive landscapes but also enhanced community engagement and improved livelihoods.
The National Government’s pursuit of the 10.6 million-hectare target aligns with the 15 Billion Trees initiative, aiming to achieve a 30% forest cover for Kenya by 2032. This endeavor seeks to promote biodiversity conservation, environmental sustainability, sustainable livelihoods, climate resilience, and socio-economic development.
The forum was a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry, the World Bank, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and local partners, including the Tsavo Foundation and the Conservation Alliance of Kenya (CAK), under the AREECA Program.
