Tag: women in conservation

seeing the wood and the trees

plants people planet

At 7%  Kenya has one of the lowest levels of tree cover in Africa. The 20 Million Trees campaign from the International Tree Foundation (ITF), is helping Kenya to meet its reforestation targets. This campaign contributes to the Kenyan government’s wider environment strategy tackling climate change, land degradation and reversing deforestation.

ITF has been working closely with partners including Mount Kenya Environmental Conservation (MKEC), the Mount Kenya Trust , the Kenya Forest Research Institute and Botanic Garden Conservation International supporting community organisations leading the 20 Million Trees campaign.

As part of its work with groups of small holders in the Embu district, MKEC conducted a household survey to understand how people use the forests. Rural Kenyan communities rely primarily on the forests for collecting firewood and harvesting wild plants for fodder. The forests have also suffered from encroachment, logging, poaching, fires and livestock farming.

As part of this inspiring community-led reforestation project, local women groups and community groups establish tree nurseries and take part in tree planting and are also responsible for the aftercare. Young trees are planted in existing forest, degraded areas and on small farms. For farmers, reforestation helps to prevent soil erosion, restores soil fertility and the trees provide shade for crops. Vegetables can be cultivated amongst the maturing trees, improving food security and providing additional income. If two vegetable crops can be harvested a year, then it is estimated that farmers can earn up to $1000. This additional income can support access to education and healthcare, and enable farmers to save and invest.

The 20 Million Trees campaign, works with local communities living in and around the Imenti and Ontulili forests, Aberdares, Mount Elgon, the Cherangani Hills and the Kakamega forest – Kenya’s only remaining rainforest. On Mount Kenya, the ITF and the 20 million Trees campaign aim to restore 900 hectares of degraded forest and plant more than 800,000 trees!

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Mount Kenya

 

plants people perfume

plants people planet

In the remote Kunene region of north western Namibia, a plant conservation project has helped to generate income amongst women and to encourage sustainable harvesting from the wild. Integral Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), is an organisation focused on community-based natural resource management in Namibia.

Women from the nomadic Himba community have traditionally collected from the succulent plant called omimbiri or Commiphora wildii. As with myrrh, to which it’s closely related, it is also the dried resin that is harvested from this desert shrub. The resin is gathered during the dry season from wild plant populations growing on the dolomitic inland cliffs on the edge of the desert.

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Himba women harvesting resin of Commiphora wildii

Traditionally the resin is heated and combined with butter fat and powdered ochre to make a beauty treatment. The resin provides this paste with a lemony perfume, which women apply to their skin for its moisturising, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties.

IRDNC’s project has selected to work with Himba women from two conservancies to protect sustainable harvesting and local knowledge, and provide income from the commercialisation of the oils derived from the plant resin.

Women have traditionally collected the dried resin and continue to be the majority of wild collectors. The project has helped to train other harvesters and create opportunities to generate income and improve livelihoods.

An annual harvest of more than six tonnes, could be wild collected by more than 300 women. These harvesters receive direct income at the point when they bring the resin to be weighed. The resin is processed at a local pressing factory owned by a trust whose members are also harvesters.