Community managed forests constitute a significant proportion of the world’s
forests, however, little is known regarding their condition or the details of how they are
managed. Documented benefits of community managed forest include poverty alleviation
and in some places a decrease in the rate of deforestation. Although some community
based forests do not satisfy the IUCN definition of a protected areas, they provide
valuable long term sustainability of forest products and many are also rich in biodiversity
and support landscape conservation strategies. Forests are also home to many cultures
including the indigenous people. Indigenous communities surrounding forest areas and
other protected areas have developed patterns of resource use and management that
reflect their intimate knowledge of local environments and ecosystems. However,
indigenous knowledge is rarely documented or incorporated into science based or
government run conservation planning. It is therefore the aim of this research to examine
the contribution of indigenous ecological knowledge in the conservation of
Enguserosambu Community Forest and surrounding rangelands. Specifically, the
research aimed to; understand social mechanisms supporting indigenous ecological
knowledge generation, accumulation and transmission, to examine the role of local
indigenous institutions in supporting conservation of Enguserosambu Community Forest,
and to assess if time-series aerial imagery support historical forest management practices
shared as oral histories about land-use change by the communities.
Case study design was used to explore the phenomenon in detail. Purposeful
sampling was used to recruit research participants that could provide information rich in
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detail about indigenous forest management practices in the study area. Four villages were
surveyed. Individual and group semi-structured interviews were conducted with
customary elders, village leaders, forest user groups, NGO’s, and forest officers. One
focus group discussion was conducted with a community conservation trust. A total of
57 individuals were interviewed, of which 19 were females. Interviews session lasted
between 30 minutes and 2 hours. Most of the interviews were audio recorded. Interviews
were conducted in either Swahili or Maa language. In case of the latter, translator was
used during the interview process. Field noted were also recorded each time the
researcher visited the villages. Thematic analysis was carried out for qualitative
information using NVivo 10. To compare oral history with land cover change, satellite
images with 30m spatial resolution were acquired from Landsat 7 and 8 for land cover
change analysis. Satellite Imagery from February 2000 and February 2015 were selected
for analysis. ArcGIS 10.2 was used to analyze satellite images for forest cover change.
Findings related to the community connection to the forest demonstrate that for
the Enguserosambu community, culture and forest is seen as one entity. The forest
provides for livelihood needs such as water, firewood, building poles, honey and
traditional medicine, and dry season grazing ground for livestock. Customary elders use a
variety of practices and strategies to share indigenous ecological knowledge with other
community members. Some of the strategies include age group meetings, cultural bomas1
and traditional celebrations. The need for forest protection is recognized and forest
protection is practiced, for example fencing off water catchments or important trees.