The Ecological Effects of Wood Fuel Extraction on the Gazetted Forests within Koibatek Zone, Mau Forests Complex, Kenya

Abstract

Despite the importance of woodfuel in Kenya's economic development, the ecological effects of its extraction on forests (particularly gazette forests) remain unclear. Studies contradicts each other on effects of woodfuel extraction on forests with some indicating that it leads to loss of biodiversity and forest degradation while othersstating that woodfuel extraction is a forest cleaning activity and a part of good forest management. Little has been done to establish the area of forests lost due to woodfuel extraction as well as changes in distribution of preferred tree species from gazette forests in Kenya. The objective of this paper was to establish the ecological effects of woodfuel extraction on the gazette forests within Koibatek Zone, Mau Forests Complex-Kenya.Cross-sectional descriptive research design was adopted with all the 8 gazetteblocks within the Zone purposely selected. Stratified random sampling was used to select 384 woodfuel extractors and 8 FGDs were conducted each comprising of 10 participants. World Bank (2009) was used to convert volumes of woodfuel to equivalent forest cover required/consumed in gazetted forests from 2006-2014. Forest cover change for 2006-2014 was examined by analyzing satellite images acquired from the United States Geological Survey Global Visualization viewer.The estimated volume of woodfuel from gazetted forests between 2006 and 2014 was 260,746.1m³ out of which 113,289.59m³was firewood and 147,456m³ was charcoal. The forest cover lost due to woodfuel was equivalent mature trees contained in 3902.6ha of closed-canopy forests. This is equivalent to 7.6% of closed forests of the gazette blocks within Koibatek Forests Zone. About 13 tree species were preferred for woodfuel; 8 indigenous species and 5 exotic species. Indigenous trees preferred had reduced as indicated by 89% of extractors while distribution of exotic species remained constant as reported by 68% of extractors