Menengai Community Forest Association
What is our innovation case about?
Menengai forest is of importance for the livelihood of our people near the forest. Therefore, we have established Menengai Community Forest Association, an umbrella body for sustainable management of the forest, while carrying out various econmoic activities. Our vision is that the forest can be conserved while utlilizing non-timber forest resources for economic purposes. Non-timber activities are for instance seed bank, seedlings, honey, medicinal herbs and pasture. At the bass of our collaboration, you can find the participatory drafted forest management plan. This plan has increased the awareness about the potential of the forest and has fostered community ownership to manage the forest sustainably. We are also innovating in new ways of land use, as for instance, we allow crop production to take place along tree planting.
Our main challenge is how to sustainable utilize the non-timber forest products for livelihood gains. We are also looking for ways to improve water use efficiency for sustainable tree nursery establishment and seedling production and we want to know how to enhance germination for the most threatened tree species of our forest.
Our position in the food systems transformation towards regeneration and inclusion is:
Our role in the food systems transformation is the focus on sustainable management of our forest ecosystem in a way that it meets the livelihood purposes of the community. We contribute to afforestation, support pollination by bee keeping and we carry out agroforestry. In terms of inclusivity, we provide landless household access to food production. Our youths earn income from eco-tourism activities and the community can access medicinal herbs and pasture.