Kakamega Forest

There was no school last week so we’ve taken the opportunity to do some travel.  After visiting Carey’s village, we went to the Kakamega forest.  The Kakamega forest was once connected to the Guineo-Congolian rainforest and stretched from Kenya across Africa.  Growing population has caused most of this forest to be cleared and turned into farmland.  Carey’s village would have been part of this rainforest, but now it is farmland.  The Kakamega forest is an isolated island remnant, cut off from the rest of the Guineo-Congolian forest.  To the east of the Kakamega forest are the Nandi Hills, which rise to about 8000ft.  Farther east the land drops into the rift valley, which is in the rainshadow and therefore much drier.  So the Kakamega forest is the easternmost part of this mostly deceased rainforest.

Big Tree in Kakamega Forest

The Kakamega forest is small.  The primary forest, the old growth, is smaller still.  The land is managed by two entities: the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Kenya Forest Department.  The Kenya Forest Department allows some farming and logging in its section, and most of the growth is secondary.  We headed to the Kakemaga Forest National Reserve, managed by the Kenya Wildlife Service.  This section is protected from exploitation by armed guards.

We arrived at the main gate where we were greeted by a guard in a military uniform.  There are three tiers of entry fees: Kenyan citizens, Kenyan residents, and foreign visitors.  The prices for foreign visitors are as high as U.S. National Parks and are given in U.S. dollars: $20 per adult and $10 per child.  These are shockingly high prices: we spent about the same amount entering the park as we do on a month’s supply of food here.  But it is important that locals see that there are economic advantages to preserving the rainforest.

We stayed in a banda, a circular structure about 20 feet in diameter with a grass roof.  I had tried to reserve a banda by phone, but the numbers in both of our travel books didn’t go through.  We also didn’t know if we’d need sleeping bags or cooking supplies.  In the end we brought sleeping bags (which we didn’t need) and left our cooking supplies (which we did).  A kind man named Shem was in charge of the bandas.  I found him watching TV with his wife in his house, which is also in the reserve.  He lent us some pots, plates, and a kerosene stove.

As we entered the clearing with the Bandas we saw about 6 black and white colubus monkeys in the trees.  The afternoon rains started shortly after we arrived.  I went on a short walk with an umbrella and saw a blue monkey as well.

In the evening we sat in the banda playing Monopoly Deal, when Uhuru caught a moth.  She opened the door to let the moth outside, and about 30 more moths came in.  Carey had the idea of turning off the inside light and turning on the outside light to attract the moths.  This didn’t really work, and we ended up with about 100 moths in the banda.  They flew around energetically for a while, and then their wings started to fall off.  We had seen piles of wings outside previously.  The dewinged moths crawled off to die, mate, or both.

Moth Mayhem!

The morning was clear, and we hired a guide to show us the forest.  This was also expensive, but again we figured it was helping to preserve the forest.  Our guide, Benson, was from the village just outside the Reserve.  He explained that the guides take schoolchildren through the forest every Saturday.  He explained that the children needed to see the forest so they would want to protect it later.  As poet Baba Dioum said, “In the end, we will protect only what we love.  We will love only what we understand.  We will understand only what we are taught.”

Benson, our guide.

Benson sported a huge pair of Nikon binoculars and was good at spotting wildlife.  We saw numerous birds, butterflies and monkeys (black and white colobus, blue, and red tailed).  He also explained the properties of various trees.  As we walked through the primary section of the forest, he showed us one massive tree where the bark had been stripped from the base.  The bark has some medicinal properties, but by stripping the bark the locals had killed the tree.  This is the kind of situation that Benson said he would like to prevent through education.

Fig tree climbing and surrounding another tree.

The big trees aren't the only plants which reach the heights of the forest canopy.  Vines and parasitic plants cling to the big trees.

Climbing jungle vines, a highlight for the kids.

We proceeded into the secondary growth forest, which was also rich with wildlife.  The trees were small though.  Benson said the area was farmland before the Reserve was created in 1985.  We climbed a lookout for lunch that had an expansive view of the forest.  The steep south side of the hill was rippled with gullies.  Since the clearing of the forest there had been dramatic erosion.  Some cedar trees had been planted for erosion prevention.

Finally, we visited Isiukhu Falls, a 2m drop on the Isiukhu river.  Uhuru and Apollo jumped across the rocks until Apollo fell in the river.

Leaping across the river, right before the plunge.

The walk back took us past the village.  I asked Benson about people going to the forest for firewood; after all the forest was only a few meters from some houses.  He said people feared the guards, but also that some gathering still occurred.  We ended our walk at the guides’ center.  Solomon, the guide manager asked us if we would like to make an additional donation to the Reserve.  Uhuru thought this might be a good project for her fundraising back in the US.

At about 3:00 the afternoon rains began again.  It rains a lot more here than Iten.  We got back into our spaceship and headed home.

Preserving habitat in Kenya is very different from the United States.  In Kenya people live in or around the areas that are being preserved.  Their cooperation is essential if preservation efforts are to succeed.  In Nepal we saw a similar thing in the Chitwan area.  The local community realized that the economic benefits of tourism hinged on preventing poaching and habitat loss.  This is very different from Mount Rainier for example, where few people live near the park borders.