Hey there it’s Drew again back with more from Friends of Shimoni Forest. The amount of destruction in the forest is reaching new and higher levels every day but we’re still pushing for protection. The importance community plays in reaching our goals is not never forgotten. Saying that, we realize that the Shimoni coastal forest does not belong to one community, other villages use the forest as well. It is just as important for these communities to get involved. When I think about it, they’re a part of our community as well. I mean why not? We share water, matatus and other resources. So we’ve decided to extend a hand to these local communities, particularly a women’s group in the nearby village Anzwani.
Yesterday, Athumani, Friends of Shimoni Forest treasurer, and I took a trip up the road to see how we could assist another community group and to ask for support for our cause. We had a meeting with about 15 women from their woman’s group. First we explained to them what are group was about and the importance of protecting the coastal forest. We told them about how there are people from outside their community coming and using their village as a passage into forest to cut down timber and burn charcoal. This really seemed to hit home. They use the forest to collect firewood for cooking and traditional medicines, but that is for their community and is a sustainable practice. They did not appreciate the idea of others coming and destroying the forest for profit when the community is still struggling. They quickly agreed to work with us. We asked that they help spread the word of conservation. Now there will be a log kept when they see charcoal burners and power saws, and these people will no longer be welcome in Anzwani. They will no longer stand by and let this happen.
Like I was saying before the importance of community is not lost on our group. We have asked for assistance from this local group and we feel it is our responsibility to show our support for them as well. We talked about ideas they have for capacity building and other options for sustainable use of the forest. They really got on board; many of the women are anxious to get involved with bee-keeping and want to be sent for training as soon as possible. We talked about ways to raise the money to get this started and we will be putting our ideas into action soon. We also met with some of the youth from the village. They too had strong feeling about conserving the coastal forest. A few of them will be first on our list when we begin training tourist guides for the forest tour we are creating. Alternative livelihood is the best way we can encourage conservation, and the people of Anzwani village are ready and willing. We made some really great friends today and I can’t wait to start working with them.
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[...] if alternative livelihoods can be adopted to replace forest depleting livelihood practices. Drew, an American volunteer from California, wrote on the GVI Kenya blog at WildlifeDirect: Alternative livelihood is the best way we can encourage conservation, and the people of Anzwani [...]