December. 1999 
13 
POTENTIAL IMPACT AND BENEFITS OF THE 
PROJECT 
Expected benefits from environmental education will 
include greater awareness of the importance and urgent 
need for the conservation of Kakamega forest This is 
expected to result in change of people's day-to-day 
behaviour. This will assist directly or indirectly with 
forest conservation, their dependence on forest 
resources will be reduced and therefore, less pressure 
will be exerted on the forest resources The local 
community will be aware of Ihc disadvantages ol 
grazing within the forest. Responsible and controlled 
grazing will enable growth of saplings and eventual 
reforestation o! degraded areas With adoption ol energy 
saving technologies and on farm forestry, the demand 
on the forest wood resources is expected to reduce 
Production and marketing of energy saving technologies 
will result in increased income and heightened 
awareness on the existence of improved energy saving 
technologies. Income generating activities will provide 
economic impact to impoverished villagers 
Employment potential and opportunities will be 
increased by all the income generating activities Dia*cl 
revenue channelled to local community development 
will raise the standard ol living ol the local community 
around Kakamega torest and the dependency on forest 
resources for cash income will be reduced Involvement 
of village communities in ecological research will help 
demonstrate the value of the forests, both in theoretical 
and economic terms There is no substitute for the 
conservation value of local people taking pride in their 
resources. Inventorying, monitoring and land use daia 
will provide inputs for improved decision-nuking and 
Optimal planning for land resources at the Kakamega 
forest With strengthened family planning activities, 
there will be human population reduction and subsequent 
reduction of population pressure on forest resources. 
Acknowledgements 
We thank the John D And Catherine T MacAnhur 
Foundation. David and Lucile Packard Foundanon and 
the Global Environmental Facilliy/Small Grants 
programme of UNDP for the funding to initiate this 
work We thank our colleagues at ICIPF. and many 
partner institutions for encouragement KIFCON, 
IOCD visiting group, Charles Weiss and Richard 
Bagmc. The example of Guanacaste Conservation Area 
in Costa Rica provided key ideas and models 
Lucie Rogo. Wilber Lwnnde, Scott Miller. Hans 
llerren & Andrew Chaps a 
The International Centre of Insect Phvsiology and 
Ecology (ICIPE). P O Box 30772. Nairobi 
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MARSABIT FOREST: A KEY RESOURCE 
IN NEED OF PROTECTION BY ALL 
STAKEHOLDERS 
The semi-arid and arid rangelands of Northern Kenya 
generally characterised by harsh ecological conditions 
are fragile and prone to natural resources degradation. 
They are traditionally utilised for extensive pastoral 
livestock production (Schwartz, and Schulta. 1995) 
However, there arc pockets in some mountain regions 
with conditions lavourablc to rainfall agriculture and 
other land use practices Natural conditions in Marsabit 
District differ widely (Schwartz, et ol. 1991) There 
are vasl lowlands ranging from 400-700 m a s I which 
arc interspersed with several mountain ranges reaching 
altitudes of more than 2.700 m a s I. The mountains 
are characterised by an evergreen tropical mountain 
forest vegetation type. 
Forests of Kenya can be summarised into six blocks 
(Anon. 1992) Among these blocks are the northern 
mountains which compose Marsabit. Ndotos. Mathews. 
Lcroghi and Kulal. Marsabit forest is distinct in that it 
