Kenya

Restoration of Sacred Natural Forest Ecosystems for Enhanced Carbon Sequestration

Project completed

Organisation

Institute for Culture and Ecology

Website

Support area

Conserving natural carbon sinks

Funding

122864 €

Project duration

Mar, 2024 – Feb, 2026

Although the Ntugi and Kivaa forests in Tharaka Nithi and Machakos Counties respectively are designated as sacred natural forests under the National Museums and Heritage Act, they are seriously threatened by illegal logging and agricultural use.

This IKI Small Grants project‘s goal is to collaborate with local communities and forest officials to restore the forest systems through various measures, such as capacity building for forest management and participatory planning. Additionally, the project includes the establishment of tree nurseries to cultivate indigenous trees and the restoration of 550 hectares of degraded forest areas. The target group includes adjacent communities, the Kenya Forest Service, and relevant county governments, with about 700 people benefiting directly.

The project aims to achieve sustainability and multiplier effects by leveraging indigenous knowledge and practices, establishing forest protection guidelines, and integrating multi-stakeholder platforms into county policies.

Key achievements

Multi-Stakeholder Platform on Culture and Heritage protection for Machakos County was formed
Four hectares rehabilitated through tree planting
Reflection process on Participatory Forest Management Plan for Ntugi forest initiated
Elders and youth meetings conducted to strategize how young people will learn indigenous knowledge and practices for conservation of local biocultural diversity.
A bottom-up legislation process on culture and heritage happen in both Machakos and Tharaka Nithi Counties initiated

Capacity development

IKI Small Grants supports Institute for Culture and Ecology in their organisational capacity development through:

Trainings for advisory board members on resource mobilisation and internal policy development
Development of gender and youth inclusion organisational strategy
Trainings on GIS and remote sensing as well as GPS machines
Trainings on legal empowerment as well as research and documentation

About the organisation

The Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE) is a Kenyan indigenous non-governmental organisation started in 2006 and registered with the NGO Coordination Board. ICE was founded out of a visible need to promote the inherent and natural role of culture in environmental and resource management in Kenya. ICE works with community groups and schools in Tharaka Nithi, Machakos, Meru, Murang’a, Embu, Kilifi and Kiambu counties. The organisations mandate is to promote environmental conservation and natural resource management through buttressing traditional knowledge in community-based environmental and resource management initiatives.