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Kenya: Rare Forest Plant At Great Risk As Demand Increases
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The Nation (Nairobi)
2 May 2008
Posted to the web 1 May 2008
Daniel Nyassy
Nairobi
A wide bare circle is visible from the air in the middle of Arabuko Sokoke forest in Gede, Malindi District and cannot help wondering what could be responsible for the loss of trees.
A closer look provides the answer - stumps of trees, hard wood specifically felled by illegal loggers and smuggled out of the supposedly protected forest.
The forest, covering about 400 square kilometres, is one of the very few remaining tropical forests in Africa and the largest indigenous coastal forest in Kenya. Like many others in Kenya, the forest is threatened by illegal loggers.
Its wood, some of it from the rarest of indigenous species, is smuggled out every day to feed the carving industry, promoted by the tourism industry at the Coast. Most of the carvings find their way overseas.
Honey source
The forest is responsible for frequent rains over the Mida Creek and surrounding areas.
It is home to thousands of butterflies that have been commercialised and source of honey that is gradually changing the economy of the local community, through exports to Europe and America.
But the forest has acquired new uses today, thanks to an initiative to conserve medicinal plants in and around the Arabuko Sokoke.
It feeds the ever growing herbal medicine industry that is seriously competing with modern medicine.
Researcher Doris Mutta, who is the Coast director of Kenya Forestry Research Institute, has been working with community groups to conserve tree species, which have medicinal value.
Bird species
She told a recent the institute's Open Day gathering at Mijomboni Primary School in Watamu: "The community participatory conservation approach was identified and adopted as a strategy for sustainable conservation of medicinal plants."
The Arabuko Sokoke forest, noted Dr Mutta, has 600 plant species out of which 169 are medicinal. Some of them are endangered due to over-exploitation.
The forest is also the habitat of 230 bird species and more than 250 butterfly species.
And warned Dr Mutta: "Intensive studies have indicated that this forest resource is diminishing due to increasing pressure for agricultural land and illegal exploitation of the commercial species, some of which take up to 30 years to mature."
What is encouraging though, is that the surrounding communities, through training and vigorous awareness campaigns, are building a strong traditional, cultural and scientific knowledge base on uses of the biodiversity that guide conservation strategies.
Twenty six herbal groups have been established, 15 of them with their own farms to conserve some of the most endangered species. The notable ones include Ufanisi Conservation Herbal Group and Jiinue Uinuliwe Women's Group.
More than 50 villages have been reached through the conservation awareness campaigns that centre on the need not to cut medicinal trees and encourages planting them in their farms.
Up to 156 herbal medicines, for treating various ailments, have been discovered in Arabuko Sokoke forest.
Data on these trees, including 123 species identified with local names, has been recorded and documented in the local Giriama language, Kiswahili and English.
Man's libido
Some of the notable herbs that treat various diseases were displayed at the Open Day gathering.
What was interesting though, was the rush for the herbs that enhance man's libido. The more than 100 sachets on display soon ran out.
Dr Mutta said diseases such as coughs, high blood pressure, midwifery complications, pre- and post-natal care; children's diseases, urinary and upper respiratory tract infections and fibroids could be treated using herbal medicine.
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Among the plants identified for medicinal use are kadhimi kapala, mhirihiri, mbandajembe, mtsatsa, msunduzi, mtanga, kikwatha, mbonokoma, mnwamadzi, mkayukayu, kakwaju and karira kaloma.
Others are mshindaalume, mtsulambega, mbirandu, mtandamboo, mbambakofi, mgangalungo, mjafari/mdhungu, mnyangakitswa and mhumba.
Among the 30 prioritised species that need serious protection to save them from extinction are mbirandu, mhirihiri, mjungumoto, mpapura, mporojo, mrusapungu, muhalanda, mwaanikanzovu and vujeyatsi.
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