December. 1990 
II 
rearing), cultivation of traditional medicinal plants and 
low impact dairy cattle keeping popularly known as 
"Zero-grazing". 
Apiculture and Senculture 
Apiculture and sericulture have enormous potential in 
providing alternative income activities for the local 
communities in Africa such as those living in the 
immediate catchment area of Kakamcga forest In the 
past 5 years. ICIPE has undertaken extensive research, 
development and capacity building in these activities 
in East Africa. It conducts on-farm trials and testing ot 
apiculture and sericulture technologies in four East 
African countries, including honey bee keeping, wild 
silk moth conservation and utilization, and domesticated 
silkworm rearing for fiber and tood production. Over 
5.000 farmers, NGOs and government extension 
personnel from the 4 East African countries have been 
trained at ICIPE in the two areas ICIPE also acts as 
an intermediary between the farmers and traders to 
assist in the marketing of the resulting commercial 
products to the extent that the income ol the participating 
tanners has increased by 40-60 percent These 
technologies will be promoted among the local 
communities around Kakamcga forest. 
Community-based cultivation of medicinal plants 
One of the causes of destruction of Kakamcga forest is 
the collection of large quantities of plant material, 
particularly roots, bark and whole shrubs, by the local 
community, traditional medicinal herbalists and herbal 
medicine vendors lor sale and use in traditional 
medicine The collections arc often uncontrolled leading 
to the destruction of many plants ui the forest The 
demand for medicinal plants is steadily increasing not 
only tn developing countries hut also in the industrialized 
nations. In both Europe and North America, the demand 
is fueled by an outburst of consumer interest in products 
that are “all natural" as well as by aggressive maiketlng 
of herbal remedies (Lcwmgton. 1993) In Kenya a 
tremendous pari of the population still relies on 
traditional medicine for its primary health care 
Traditional medicine practitioners are known to serve 
80-90% of the population (Chapya. 1996) Local 
community farmers around Kakamcga forest will be 
encouraged to cultivate sclccfcd medicinal plants lor 
their use and for sale of resulting products. The activity 
could serve a dual purpose of helping to case pressure 
off die forest for herbal medicinal products while 
providing income to the community 
Credit Provision 
Credit provision will be an important intervention 
required to raise both on-farm and off-farm 
opportunities to raise income for the forest surrounding 
households This project will introduce credit facilities 
into the project area in collaboration with the Kenya 
Rural Enterprise program (K-REP) K-REP has in the 
past had marked success in providing loans, training, 
identifying and testing innovative methods for 
promoting micro and small scale enterprises to many 
rural communities in Kenya. Some of K-REP’s most 
successful programs operate on the Grameen Bank 
model, requiring loanees to form small groups of co- 
guarantors Promotion and delivery is managed by Area 
Credit Officers who lead and support a small number 
of credit officers, each maintaining a portfolio of 
borrowers K-REP's repayments through this model 
run to an average of 98 6 percent. 
The need for improvement of existing 
resource management of Kakamega Forest 
The conservation of the indigenous lores! resource, its 
biological diversity, ecological serv ices and productivity 
should be supported by scientific research including 
inventorying and monitoring, training of 
parataxonomists to assist with the inventorying and 
monitoring, and categorization of land use types so as 
to understand the dynamics of the resource base and 
how ii can be conserved efficiently Management 
activities should support indigenous tree plantation 
development for the restoration of degraded Inrcsl 
habitats and to support local community wood 
requirements. In addition physical protection of the 
forest resource is mandatory to ensure forest 
preservation 
Inventory and monitoring 
Kakamcga forest is renowned for ns tlora and fauna, 
wnh many endemic and rare species. The main aim ol 
inventorying and monitoring will Ik- io provide baseline 
data on the diversity and distribution of key groups ol 
potential indicator organisms, rare and threatened 
species. The inventorying will be a short-term survey 
of hroad taxonomic groups lor muluplc purposes, 
including facilitating choice of narrow groups for 
monitoring, and irainmg parataxomists in handling 
diverse taxa Monitoring will be an on going activity 
tin annual cycles) aimed at characterising forest health 
and measuring changes over time. The information from 
inventorying and monitoring will he used io guide 
immediate and long-term management, policy and 
decision making at the torcst. It may also help identify 
additional non-limber products in the forest The 
information will also assist in defining the impact ol 
human activities on biodiversity and provide the 
csseniial biological information required for planning, 
management and evaluation for this project 
Training of Parataxonomists 
Studies in many countries have shown thai villagers 
who rely mostly on fores! resources often possess 
exceptionally detailed knowledge of forest animals and 
plants, only a portion or which has been recorded in 
writing This traditional knowledge can be developed 
into crucial skills for biological research Given 
adequate training, local villagers can become 
parataxonomists and qualify for a variety ol tasks related 
to biological research, monitoring, and education by 
performing preliminary sorting to species, as well as 
