30/08/2025
AFRICAN HISTORIA
KENYA 🇰🇪 FOREST KARURA FOREST
Karura Forest is an urban forest in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. It is the second largest urban forest in the world after the Tijuca Forest[1] in Rio de Janeiro located in Brazil. The forest was gazetted in 1932 and is managed by the Kenya Forest Service in conjunction with the Friends of Karura Forest Community Forest Association. Karura Forest is 1,041 hectares (2,570 acres) consisting of three parts separated by Limuru and Kiambu roads. The large middle portion is ca. 710 hectares (1,800 acres); the Sigiria salient to the west is ca. 250 hectares (620 acres). The portion to the east of Kiambu road has been allocated to special national priorities. As of mid-2016, 36% of the forest contains indigenous upland forest tree species. The forest is home to some 200 species of bird as well as suni, Harveys Duiker, bushbucks, bush pigs, genets, civets, honey badgers, bush babies, porcupines, Syke's monkeys, bush squirrels, hares, fruit bats, and various reptiles and butterflies. Karura now has over 50 km of trails for visitors to walk, run or bike.
Due to its proximity to a growing city, there have been plans to reduce the forest in favour of housing and other development. However, these plans have been controversial with conservationists. In the late 1990s there were housing projects that would have excised portions of the forest. Conservationists, led by Wangari Maathai, the leader of Green Belt Movement who later became a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, carried out a much publicised campaign for saving the forest. Karura Forest became also a symbol against controversial land grabbings in Kenya. average of 16,000 visitors a month, 70% of whom are Kenyan citizens. In 2015 there were some 600,000 visitors.
Tourism
Karura Forest is now developed as a visitor's attraction for both local and international, with more than 16,000 entries per month. This includes creation of some 50 km of nature trails for walking, running and biking.The first trail, which is four kilometres long and connects Limuru Road with Old Kiambu Road was opened in May 2009.[9] An electric fence has been built around the forest for security reasons.[43] Although 70% of Karura's visitors are Kenyan citizens, there is a growing appreciation by an international clientele as witnessed by Karura having received a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for two years running (2014–15) and being listed as No. 4 out of 101 Things To Do in Nairobi.
The Karura Forest Environmental Education Trust (KFEET) was formed in 2010, and launched by then Minister for Forestry and Wildlife Noah Wekesa.KFEET manages an environmental education centre located in Karura Forest and facilitating access to thousands of Kenyan school children.
Harvesting of mature exotic trees
Since late 2024, the Kenyan government, through the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), has embarked on a phased approach of cutting down mature exotic trees from the Karura forest, among other forests. Exotic trees were first planted centuries ago to provide fuel during the construction of the Kenya-Uganda railway and to build houses.
The exercise is being guided by the Forest Conservation and Management Act of 2016 and the Karura Forest Participatory Forest Management Plan (PFMP), amongst other laws, and aims to restore the forest to its natural state.The cut sections of the forest are to be replaced with indigenous trees such as Markhamia that are more suitable for the ecological area.Some other sections will be left to coppice.
The exercise of replacing exotic trees with indigenous ones had been on hold for six years due to a ban on logging in public forests since 2018. The ban was lifted in mid 2023.
The targeted trees include Eucalyptus and Cypress trees. An area of 6.3 hectares within the forest has been marked for the exercise. These exotic trees, such as eucalyptus trees, have bad hydrological consequences on water resources since they absorb much of it. Moreover, the colobus monkeys in the forest cannot feed on them, unlike the native trees.
This move attracted much attention, with most people wrongly assuming that the forest was being cleared so as to be grabbed.
