Landscapes in ActionCooperation Sows Benefits for Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Kenya's Central HighlandsLari Landscape, Kenya
It’s a crisp morning in Lari’s Aberdare Forest, and farm coordinator Tabitha Muthoni and her team are busy with the morning’s tasks at Cheer Up Farm. At the tail end of the country’s “long rain” season, the warm sun is a welcome departure from the previous day’s downpour and provides the perfect opportunity to lay out just-harvested spinach and green bananas to dry.
Muthoni enters the nearby tent and methodically places the spinach leaves side by side on the highest drying rack.
This solar dryer, purchased through a small grant provided by community-based nonprofit organization Kijabe Environment Volunteers (KENVO), has already proven to be a game changer for farmers in Kijabe, an agricultural community 62 kilometers (39 miles) northwest of Nairobi nestled within the Lari landscape of Kenya’s central highlands. A mainstay of the landscape since the late '90s, KENVO acts as the glue that unites the seemingly disparate activities happening in the landscape.
The device uses the sun’s heat to dry produce placed inside it, dramatically increasing the time before it loses value as food. That means that the farmers’ excess vegetables, which were once discarded or left to rot, can now be dried, ground and transformed into powdered supplements worth nearly three times their price fresh. Distant consumers benefit from the boost in nutrition, while Lari’s growers put the money they once lost into their pockets.
Muthoni enters the nearby tent and methodically places the spinach leaves side by side on the highest drying rack.
This solar dryer, purchased through a small grant provided by community-based nonprofit organization Kijabe Environment Volunteers (KENVO), has already proven to be a game changer for farmers in Kijabe, an agricultural community 62 kilometers (39 miles) northwest of Nairobi nestled within the Lari landscape of Kenya’s central highlands. A mainstay of the landscape since the late '90s, KENVO acts as the glue that unites the seemingly disparate activities happening in the landscape.
The device uses the sun’s heat to dry produce placed inside it, dramatically increasing the time before it loses value as food. That means that the farmers’ excess vegetables, which were once discarded or left to rot, can now be dried, ground and transformed into powdered supplements worth nearly three times their price fresh. Distant consumers benefit from the boost in nutrition, while Lari’s growers put the money they once lost into their pockets.
Dwindling Resources and Fragmented Fixes Drive Need for Collaboration
The simple but meaningful addition of a solar dryer to the area’s agricultural output is just one piece of the local landscape partnership (LP) effort to revive Lari’s forests, an ecosystem once depleted by overexploitation from illegal logging, residential charcoal production and unsustainable farming practices.
Decades of competing interests between Lari’s residents, landowners, NGOs and businesses had made local people and nature poorer. Meanwhile, weak land governance combined with increasing deforestation had left the area drained of native trees that had previously prevented erosion and drought.
Ann Njuki, the leader of the Gatamaiyu Water Resource Users Association, said locals witnessed a sharp decline in indigenous trees over the years. And as people cut down native species, they replaced those trees with exotic species that grow quickly and offer a quick source of cooking fuel and income. The domino effect continued from there.
“This kind of unsustainable use led to degradation of important land bordering our rivers,” Njuki said. “The water volume and quality became too low, and the water for the community was just not enough.”
This was only one of the challenges the Lari LP aimed to tackle. Launched in 2000 and comprised of those same stakeholders who had contributed to the decline but now wanted to heal the forest, the partnership committed to aligning their seemingly disparate interests across the landscape. Their lofty goal is to support the region’s long-term, sustainable development while restoring its prized ecosystem.
Spanning nearly 44,000 hectares (170 square miles), the Lari region hosts a rich tapestry of agricultural, ecological and cultural diversity. Before the area’s different groups began cooperating, conflict over the land and its wealth of natural resources was common. Such strife strained the health of the landscape and its communities.
Decades of competing interests between Lari’s residents, landowners, NGOs and businesses had made local people and nature poorer. Meanwhile, weak land governance combined with increasing deforestation had left the area drained of native trees that had previously prevented erosion and drought.
Ann Njuki, the leader of the Gatamaiyu Water Resource Users Association, said locals witnessed a sharp decline in indigenous trees over the years. And as people cut down native species, they replaced those trees with exotic species that grow quickly and offer a quick source of cooking fuel and income. The domino effect continued from there.
“This kind of unsustainable use led to degradation of important land bordering our rivers,” Njuki said. “The water volume and quality became too low, and the water for the community was just not enough.”
This was only one of the challenges the Lari LP aimed to tackle. Launched in 2000 and comprised of those same stakeholders who had contributed to the decline but now wanted to heal the forest, the partnership committed to aligning their seemingly disparate interests across the landscape. Their lofty goal is to support the region’s long-term, sustainable development while restoring its prized ecosystem.
Spanning nearly 44,000 hectares (170 square miles), the Lari region hosts a rich tapestry of agricultural, ecological and cultural diversity. Before the area’s different groups began cooperating, conflict over the land and its wealth of natural resources was common. Such strife strained the health of the landscape and its communities.
Go Deeper: The Need for a New Path
Residents within the Lari landscape deal with many challenges that are nearly impossible to overcome alone.
Residents Lead the Way
Driven by these challenges and his passion for the environment, Lari resident David Kuria saw an opportunity. As one of the first participants in a landscape leadership course designed by 1000L core partner EcoAgriculture Partners in 2002, Kuria became determined to employ his new skills to marshal in a new era. With support from local volunteers, he mobilized a response team to eliminate illegal charcoal burning from the surrounding forests and began to build relationships with local youth and farmers to revitalize the landscape.
Go Deeper: How KENVO Cultivated Lari's Landscape-Level Change
Go Deeper: Leveraging ILM for Landscape Partnerships
The fate of any landscape should rest on the shoulders of the people who live and work within it. When community organizations, government agencies, companies, NGOs and indigenous groups collaborate in Landscape Partnerships (LPs), they have the power to restore their landscape and make it flourish.
Building Momentum for Lari’s Landscape Transformation
Lari’s development is now more sustainable and accelerating due mainly to the thriving LP. What began as a collaboration between a nascent KFS, community volunteers and local farmers has now grown to an alliance of more than 20 farmer associations, NGOs, regional and national government offices and the private sector, all working in tandem to ensure the landscape develops sustainably.
KENVO’s Director Nelson Muiru has witnessed how ILM transformed how groups within the landscape operate by bringing together stakeholders using the landscape approach.
“We can connect the two distinct ecological zones – the lower side and the highland where we have the forest–to bring groups together that would otherwise be in conflict,” Muiru said.
“That’s how we ensure each area is ecologically and economically strong.”
The partnership is now ready to embark on a new phase in its journey through participation in the 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People (1000L) initiative. As a coalition of conservation, finance, development and technology experts, the initiative aims to equip leaders with the tools and services needed to drive and sustain long-term, landscape-level change. LP leaders are working with 1000L to realize exciting new landscape financing and capability-boosting opportunities and to overcome lingering challenges the partnership continues to face.
KENVO’s Director Nelson Muiru has witnessed how ILM transformed how groups within the landscape operate by bringing together stakeholders using the landscape approach.
“We can connect the two distinct ecological zones – the lower side and the highland where we have the forest–to bring groups together that would otherwise be in conflict,” Muiru said.
“That’s how we ensure each area is ecologically and economically strong.”
The partnership is now ready to embark on a new phase in its journey through participation in the 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People (1000L) initiative. As a coalition of conservation, finance, development and technology experts, the initiative aims to equip leaders with the tools and services needed to drive and sustain long-term, landscape-level change. LP leaders are working with 1000L to realize exciting new landscape financing and capability-boosting opportunities and to overcome lingering challenges the partnership continues to face.
Joining Forces with 1000 Landscapes Means a Brighter Outlook for Lari
It took a long time for residents to begin joining together to move Lari onto the right development path, and there’s much more to go. Financing for collaborative projects within the region remains fragmented and siloed–many entities cannot raise funds jointly due to bureaucratic barriers. A lack of infrastructure is an additional obstacle, with many farmers unable to reach markets beyond Nairobi to sell their crops and honey.
But with nearly 20 years of work, collaboration and dedication under their belt, the Lari LP is primed to guide communities across the landscape into a new phase. They aim to scale these growing initiatives with the support of 1000L’s developing suite of tools, technology and landscape-focused training curriculum.
The partnership recently completed 1000L’s landscape capacity assessment, which uncovers stakeholder collaboration and innovation opportunities. Soon, leaders will take advantage of new landscape financing innovations emerging from the 1000L finance team.
For his part, Kuria, who is now a government official in Lari’s home county, is most excited about using 1000L tools to share knowledge with landscape users. It’s a significant missing capability the LP has identified.
“We need more discussion and more information exchange,” he says. “When we have this collaboration, we don't have to celebrate success alone. We can celebrate together, but we each must contribute to that success.”
With the right ingredients, people and resources, Lari’s potential for growth won’t be limited by the rainy seasons, only by how well people can cooperate to achieve their dreams for their landscape.
But with nearly 20 years of work, collaboration and dedication under their belt, the Lari LP is primed to guide communities across the landscape into a new phase. They aim to scale these growing initiatives with the support of 1000L’s developing suite of tools, technology and landscape-focused training curriculum.
The partnership recently completed 1000L’s landscape capacity assessment, which uncovers stakeholder collaboration and innovation opportunities. Soon, leaders will take advantage of new landscape financing innovations emerging from the 1000L finance team.
For his part, Kuria, who is now a government official in Lari’s home county, is most excited about using 1000L tools to share knowledge with landscape users. It’s a significant missing capability the LP has identified.
“We need more discussion and more information exchange,” he says. “When we have this collaboration, we don't have to celebrate success alone. We can celebrate together, but we each must contribute to that success.”
With the right ingredients, people and resources, Lari’s potential for growth won’t be limited by the rainy seasons, only by how well people can cooperate to achieve their dreams for their landscape.
Landscape Challenges
Population Growth
Nairobi’s rapidly expanding population brings increasing demands for natural resources and agricultural products. Lari’s forests and other natural areas welcome a growing stream of eco-tourists. Land and water degradation, ecosystem damage and more significant climate change impacts follow in their footsteps.
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Technological Pressure
New agricultural technologies brought into Lari could shift farming practices from small-scale to intensive. Monocropping can lead to reliance on fertilizers and pesticides that impact soils and waters. Heavy farm equipment brings erosion, while industrial-scale irrigation depletes groundwater supplies. Industries that extract natural resources are also increasing in the region.
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Wildlife conflicts:
Animals such as birds, porcupines and elephants destroy crops and property. This human-wildlife conflict impacts people’s livelihoods and safety and can lead them to kill wildlife or destroy their homes and habitats.
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Lack of Capital
Without access to sufficient funding, residents couldn't introduce less extractive agricultural systems such as zero-grazing units, fish farming and beekeeping.
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Poor Market Access and Information
Poor infrastructure and a lack of supportive government policies keep many farmers from reaching markets or earning the revenues that they could. For many, intermediaries who buy agricultural products at significantly reduced prices are the only option.
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Creating KENVO
David Kuria and other local landscape leaders founded KENVO in 1994 to address the rapidly degrading environment in Kenya’s Kikuyu Escarpment. They mobilized youth volunteers to restore the forest from decades of unsustainable overexploitation by hosting dedicated planting events. These projects replaced tree cover that illegal logging and charcoal production had previously destroyed.
While these activities directly supported forest regrowth, KENVO’s leaders realized they needed to address the various threats to the area’s forests and natural resources differently. In the early 2000s, the organization investigated the root causes of forest disturbances, how residents used natural resources and community attitudes about the forest. Their findings revealed a gap in community knowledge around how agricultural and logging practices negatively impact the landscape's natural resources. Their findings prompted the organization to expand its education and awareness campaigns while expanding its reforestation mission. A school outreach program introduced students to tree nursery management and tried to instill an early appreciation for the rich local biodiversity through forest walks.
Simultaneously, KENVO encouraged local farmers to diversify their farms by integrating beekeeping, fish farming, confined livestock management, agroforestry and soil conservation practices and to share their experiences with one another. KENVO designed the activities to limit the pressure local inhabitants exerted on forests. One collaboration with the Kenya Forest Service invited farmers to plant indigenous trees in their plots in exchange for access to faster-growing trees for timber use, which simultaneously expanded local wildlife habitats. Another initiative provided farmers with bee boxes to help slow agricultural land expansion by supplementing farmers’ income with honey to sell. Implementing crop rotation helped reduce soil degradation and improve fertility. As neighbors became aware of the economic benefits that early adopters of these practices were realizing, they sought to learn about them and to emulate their experience.
Over the last two decades, KENVO’s dedication to building strong relationships and seeking innovative solutions has turned the organization into the focal point for Lari’s growing landscape partnership. With Director Nelson Miuru now at the organization’s helm, KENVO’s next stage will be expansion of the roles and responsibilities of the partnership’s many players.
While these activities directly supported forest regrowth, KENVO’s leaders realized they needed to address the various threats to the area’s forests and natural resources differently. In the early 2000s, the organization investigated the root causes of forest disturbances, how residents used natural resources and community attitudes about the forest. Their findings revealed a gap in community knowledge around how agricultural and logging practices negatively impact the landscape's natural resources. Their findings prompted the organization to expand its education and awareness campaigns while expanding its reforestation mission. A school outreach program introduced students to tree nursery management and tried to instill an early appreciation for the rich local biodiversity through forest walks.
Simultaneously, KENVO encouraged local farmers to diversify their farms by integrating beekeeping, fish farming, confined livestock management, agroforestry and soil conservation practices and to share their experiences with one another. KENVO designed the activities to limit the pressure local inhabitants exerted on forests. One collaboration with the Kenya Forest Service invited farmers to plant indigenous trees in their plots in exchange for access to faster-growing trees for timber use, which simultaneously expanded local wildlife habitats. Another initiative provided farmers with bee boxes to help slow agricultural land expansion by supplementing farmers’ income with honey to sell. Implementing crop rotation helped reduce soil degradation and improve fertility. As neighbors became aware of the economic benefits that early adopters of these practices were realizing, they sought to learn about them and to emulate their experience.
Over the last two decades, KENVO’s dedication to building strong relationships and seeking innovative solutions has turned the organization into the focal point for Lari’s growing landscape partnership. With Director Nelson Miuru now at the organization’s helm, KENVO’s next stage will be expansion of the roles and responsibilities of the partnership’s many players.
Working Together
Integrated landscape management (ILM) is helping Lari’s LP identify and engage stakeholders and bring them into a formal agreement to work together. The landscape-based approach provides tools to help leaders build a shared understanding of the landscape and how resources are being used within it. Finally, local stakeholders are developing a shared vision, strategy and targets to restore degraded agricultural lands and ecosystems, conserve local biodiversity and boost livelihoods in Lari’s communities.
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Creating a Common Vision
Integrated Landscape Management explicitly recognizes the social, economic and ecological complexity of landscapes. This is not always easy. Working towards effective ILM requires reaching agreement on a shared landscape vision and strategy among stakeholders who have different and sometimes competing priorities and interests.
Tackling Challenges by Taking Action
While a primary goal of ILM is to integrate policy measures with grassroots initiatives, in many parts of the world public programs and regulatory agencies still operate in policy silos. The result is fragmented, short-term government interventions that don’t facilitate long-term change. In many cases, taking strategic action is the key to overcoming these barriers. When David Kuria was hired by the Department of Water Resources for Kiambu County, he saw an opportunity to collaborate with the Kenya Forestry Service to consider local forests and the water that the region produced. With the support of 1000L, the Lari LP hopes to design integrated solutions that government entities and the local community can carry out together.
Leveraging Lessons for Future Impact
While raising and allocating financial resources is a critical part of transitioning to a world with resilient landscapes, many financing structures are not organized in a way that supports landscape-level investments. The Lari LP is in the process of completing an assessment of how funding currently funnels through the landscape, how land users mobilize financial resources within the landscape and how financing can be combined to solve connected problems across sectors. The learnings from this assessment will help to reimagine how public and private money can fund projects that improve human and environmental conditions across the landscape.
Supporting Lari's Livelihoods
Entrepreneurship through Ecotourism
Boosting livelihoods through entrepreneurship is one of the core objectives of ILM. By raising local incomes and launching sustainable businesses, LPs can meaningfully impact local communities and the private sector. Lari’s Forest Adventure Centre, a collaboration with the Lari Investment Company, is a prime example of this approach. The partnership supports the center through investments from more than 600 shareholders throughout Kiambu County. Nearly all of the 50 employees are members of the local community. The center supports a range of non-extractive forest activities such as archery, guided nature walks and ziplining.
One local guide, Stephen Kamau, has witnessed firsthand how the LP’s efforts have transformed the landscape. "Since I've started guiding in the forest, we've noticed a big change. It wasn't uncommon to come across logging activities at the perimeter of the forest. But since the inception of the partnership, together with the Kenya Forest Service, we’ve seen efforts of the local communities to plant trees and bring the forest back to life."
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One local guide, Stephen Kamau, has witnessed firsthand how the LP’s efforts have transformed the landscape. "Since I've started guiding in the forest, we've noticed a big change. It wasn't uncommon to come across logging activities at the perimeter of the forest. But since the inception of the partnership, together with the Kenya Forest Service, we’ve seen efforts of the local communities to plant trees and bring the forest back to life."
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Protecting the Forest with Alternative Livelihoods
Local landowners can now invest in bee boxes to harvest and sell honey that is sold at KENVO’s nearby resource center. While the initial investment is costly, In many cases farmers can earn more money harvesting honey on the same sized plot of land than they can from growing crops.
Yet even with this new form of income and KENVO’s support selling honey locally, farmers still struggle to effectively access broader markets. The Lari LP hopes to tackle this challenge through their budding collaboration with 1000L by developing eco-labeling for the landscape’s products and exploring other strategies to build national demand for local resources.
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Yet even with this new form of income and KENVO’s support selling honey locally, farmers still struggle to effectively access broader markets. The Lari LP hopes to tackle this challenge through their budding collaboration with 1000L by developing eco-labeling for the landscape’s products and exploring other strategies to build national demand for local resources.
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Combatting Kenya's Food Insecurity at Cheer Up Farms
“We started small, experimenting with a variety of potential crops before settling on bananas, green leafy vegetables like spinach and pumpkin,” Tabitha says.
“The solar dryer allows us to process nearly one ton of dried product per month, which ultimately means greater income generation for the local community. Our farmers are both our source and our market after processing. This is especially beneficial when there is a shortage of vegetables. With our dried powders and even just dehydrated greens, you can still have access to nutritious meals.”
Nearly 40% of Kenya’s food is wasted before it reaches consumers, which contributes to the country’s increasing food insecurity. The solar dryer at the Cheer Up Farm, a collective of 1,200 farmers who pooled their resources to purchase the device, ensures that farmers can maximize the return on their farming investments. By drying and processing their surplus crops each season, farmers not only avoid lost income due to food waste, but have the opportunity to earn more for their produce than if they sold it fresh. Farmers who are part of the cooperative can also take part in technical trainings on vegetable processing and agri-business basics.
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“The solar dryer allows us to process nearly one ton of dried product per month, which ultimately means greater income generation for the local community. Our farmers are both our source and our market after processing. This is especially beneficial when there is a shortage of vegetables. With our dried powders and even just dehydrated greens, you can still have access to nutritious meals.”
Nearly 40% of Kenya’s food is wasted before it reaches consumers, which contributes to the country’s increasing food insecurity. The solar dryer at the Cheer Up Farm, a collective of 1,200 farmers who pooled their resources to purchase the device, ensures that farmers can maximize the return on their farming investments. By drying and processing their surplus crops each season, farmers not only avoid lost income due to food waste, but have the opportunity to earn more for their produce than if they sold it fresh. Farmers who are part of the cooperative can also take part in technical trainings on vegetable processing and agri-business basics.
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Forest Mist: Capturing Water for Communities
In addition to a tree nursery, bee-keeping grounds and a resource center, the KENVO campus is also home to the Forest Mist water- bottling plant. Built in 2015, the bottling plant sources its water from Lari’s Kerita Forest catchment area, which provides clean, clear water that both boosts incomes and improves local water security. This venture also reduces the cost and ecological impact of transporting water from Nairobi or other areas into Lari’s communities. In the future, the LP hopes that 1000L’s landscape finance innovations will provide the funding mechanisms they need to eliminate the plant’s use of plastic bottles and transition to more sustainable packaging.
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Cooperation Sows Benefits for Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Kenya's Central Highlands
KENVO VIDEO
Solar Dryer
Go Deeper: The Need for a New Path
KFS
Go Deeper: How KENVO Cultivated Lari's Landscape-Level Change
Tree Nurseries
Go Deeper: Leveraging ILM for Landscape Partnerships
Population Growth
Technological Pressure
Wildlife conflicts:
Lack of Capital
Poor Market Access and Information
The Lari Landscape Mapped
Creating a Common Vision
Tackling Challenges by Taking Action
Leveraging Lessons for Future Impact
Entrepreneurship through Ecotourism
Protecting the Forest with Alternative Livelihoods
Combatting Kenya's Food Insecurity at Cheer Up Farms
Forest Mist: Capturing Water for Communities
