Problem

Kenya’s forests are rapidly declining due to pressure from increased population and other land uses. The dwindling forest cover has a severe effect on the climate, wildlife, water catchments, and human population. As forest cover decreases, flood risk rises in the rainy season as does the risk of drought during the dry season. Disruption of wildlife habitat and destruction of biodiversity leads to impaired tourism that further impacts the livelihoods of the rural poor.

The Gift

Recent research at The School for Field Studies Center for Wildlife Management Studies indicates that the Acacia tortillis dominated woodlands in the region are under siege by both humans and elephants, by high livestock densities and more recently by prolonged and quite frequent droughts. Your gift will allow SFS students and faculty to establish a nursery that will provide tree seedlings to the neighboring Masaai group ranches in the greater Amboseli ecosystem of southern Kenya. This will enable individual group ranches to plant wood for their own needs and alleviate pressure on the indigenous forest resources. Items that will form part of this project include the construction of a shade house and irrigation system, soil, fertilizer, and pots as well as seedling maintenance equipment such as hoes, mattocks and pruning implements to control weeds which compete with the seedlings.