Italy will spend Ksh546 million (€4 million/ $4.2 million) between 2025 and 2028 to restore the Cherang’any ecosystem in both Elgeyo Marakwet and West Pokot counties.

Speaking when he paid a courtesy call on the Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Wisley Rotich in his office, the National Environment Trustfund (Netfund) CEO Samson Toniok said the project will focus on restoration of the 92,000 hectares degraded sections of the ecosystem and promote sustainable land management practices.

Toniok said the rapid degradation of Cherang’any Forest called for urgent intervention, therefore the need for its restoration as it is a critical ecosystem being a water tower for many rivers flow from ecosystem, including rivers that empty into Lake Turkana in the Rift Valley and Lake Victoria in western Kenya.

“We attach a lot of importance to this ecosystem and therefore we are encouraging conservation through planting of trees so that we can maintain it in its original form,” the CEO said.

Noting that communities living in the ecosystem were key in its restoration, the CEO said the programme will provide the communities with alternative livelihood initiatives such as beekeeping and cash crop farming – coffee, mangoes and avocado, among others.

The CEO said the government appreciates that communities were facing various challenges and therefore require alternative sources of income which include ensuring that their farms are more productive so that they don’t encroach on the ecosystem saying the project has components which will address the challenges.

Toniok said the project will also address marketing of farm produce by ensuring that farmers organize themselves into cooperatives to enable them to negotiate for better prices. Noting that everyone must be involved in meeting the target to plant 15 billion trees by 2032 the CEO said the planting of trees in the restoration of the eco system will play a key role in ensuring that the country meets the target.

The governor said the county has a target of planting 70 million trees adding that while the county is among the top five in terms of forest cover in the country, the coverage has dropped from 39 per cent to 29 per cent leading to drying up of rivers which has affected both dairy and crop farming.

He appealed to farmers from the targeted areas to ensure that they attend all the meetings called by project to ensure they understand their role in the restoration.

The Cherang’any ecosystem, which stretches across Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot and Trans Nzoia counties is one of the five major water towers in the country with others being Mt Kenya, the Aberdares, Mt Elgon and the Mau Complex.

The ecosystem is a critical source of livelihood offering permanent sources of water to the pastoralists and agro pastoralists in the above counties and also it’s a source of water to urban areas like Iten, Eldoret, Kitale, Kapenguria and Webuye in Bungoma County.

The critical ecosystem is however facing major challenges which include human encroachment, illegal overgrasing and indiscriminate felling of trees leading to loss of biodiversity.

• A Tell / KNA report / By Alice Wanjiru and Joan Jelimo