Kakamega Forest Ecosystem Management Plan

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS)

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Abstract: This new 10-year management plan (2012-2022) for the Kakamega Forest Ecosystem (KFE) is a collaborative initiative between Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and is meant to provide an integrative framework for ecosystem management. The KWS and KFS are the prime owners of this management plan but great emphasis has been placed on the participation of a wide array of stakeholders. The plan has been developed with the recognition of various interest groups that have a venture in the KFE, and their interests have been considered to gain the much needed stakeholder support in ecosystem management. To this end, both KWS and KFS enlisted financial support of BIOTA East Africa to carry out the planning process and in offering technical backstopping. These two government institutions in turn provided the planning technical assistance and financial support to facilitate the planning process. The planning process involved extensive stakeholder participation. Hence, this plan is the result of the minds of a large cross section of the KFE’s stakeholders, and represents a shared consensus viewpoint on how the forest ecosystem should be conserved and managed for the present and future generations. The KFE Management Plan is an integrated plan developed in accordance with the KWS Protected Area Planning Framework (PAPF) and the KFS Participatory Forest Management guidelines (PFM). Both advocate for planning approaches and wide stakeholder participation. This Management Plan sets out the management approach and goals, together with a framework for decision making, to apply in the KFE over the next ten years. The Plan is a practical tool to support and guide coordinated and integrated management of natural resources in the KFE. The KFE covers distinct forest management units as follows: Kakamega Forest Reserve, Kibiri forest in Vihiga District, Yala River Nature Reserve, Isecheno Nature Reserve, Malava and Bunyala Forests all under the management of the KFS and the Kakamega and National Reserves under the management of KWS, all of which make the Kakamega Forest Ecosystem. It is anticipated that the plan will provide a mechanism for increasing the accountability of the protected area managers in reference to the identified targets and performance standards to be attained during plan implementation. The plan has also been structured in a way that the managers can easily draw up work plans for staff, assign duties, and monitor and assess performance. It also discourages a manager from ‘acting on whim’.