How communities are saving Kenya's rarest cloud forests

Communities living around Iyale Hills Forest in Taita Taveta County are combining biodiversity conservation with sustainable livelihoods.[File, Standard]

The road to Iyale Hills forest in Taita Sub-county winds steeply out of Wundanyi, climbing until the tarmac ends and the mist takes over. Perched at the edge of this hill is Choke A, a village that literally seems to be constantly swallowed by low-hanging fog. On these green slopes, the clouds hang so close to the farms that the trees seem to be peeking inside them.

But it is not even the beautiful views that draw the most attention; it is the lush greenery and innovations that seem to paint a picture of nature and its abundance. Here, forest-adjacent communities are proving that saving a globally threatened ecosystem goes hand in hand with creating sustainable livelihoods.

“We are trying to reverse degradation because so many people are dependent on this forest. It sustains the rivers downstream,” says Gift Mwaleba.

Mwaleba is a member of the Iyale Angamiza Seedlings Group, a community  conservation outfit dedicated to restoring degraded patches of the forest. He also chairs the Choke Youth Group, which mobilises young people to undertake conservation activities alongside eco-friendly livelihood ventures.

“All these groups have similar goals,” Mwaleba explains. "We work together to conserve our fragile forests that host some of the world’s rarest species. We try out eco-friendly activities that promote climate-smart agriculture while also improving our livelihoods as communities whose decisions are critical to the survival of these forests.”

Iyale is part of a fragmented network of indigenous canopies that together form the Taita Hills Forests. Rising dramatically above the semi-arid plains of Tsavo, these mountains act as misty, green islands in the sky. They are also known as the cloud forests because their high altitudes continuously trap and collect moisture-laden winds rolling in from the Indian Ocean. Geographically, they form the northernmost tip of the Eastern Arc Mountains, an ancient chain stretching down into Tanzania.

Despite their small, isolated sizes, the Taita Hills forests are classified as a global Key  Biodiversity Area (KBA). They serve as a final refuge for critically endangered, endemic bird species found nowhere else on earth, such as the Taita Apalis and the Taita Thrush. The mossy forest floor and damp soils also host unique amphibians and reptiles, including the limbless Sagalla Caecilian, the Taita Warty Frog, and the rare Taita Blade-horned Chameleon.

However, these ancient islands of biodiversity are under threat, surrounded by expanding human settlements and agricultural land. A growing population on the steep mountain slopes means constant pressure for farmland, while historic timber plantations of exotic eucalyptus and pine dry up local rivers.

Seasonal wildfires also present a recurring threat to the remaining canopy. Saving this vital water tower has become a race against time to plant indigenous trees and stop destructive fires.

“But most people do not fully embrace planting indigenous trees within their small, private farms,” Mwaleba says.

 “So, we embrace conservation agriculture where we plant high-value fruit trees like macadamia, avocados, and tree tomatoes. This way, we are not only increasing the structural forest cover but also earning income through the sale of fruits,” he added.

Living adjacent to the forest edges, these organised groups have also evolved into a community-led wildfire mitigation network.

“Given that we live near these forests, our role is to ensure that communities around are educated against setting fires," Mwaleba says. "But whenever fires do break out, we act as first responders. We have also put up strategic fire breaks to contain them.”

According to Honorina Wache, the movement began as a grassroots effort, with locals actively trying to push back against the degradation of the slopes before it evolved into a fully structured partnership with conservation groups. Today, those efforts have materialised into a deeply interconnected farming model managed by groups like the Iyale Angamiza Jangwa Seedling Group and the Choke Youth Group.

"The livelihood activities we engage in depend entirely on one another," explained Wache. “When we started this kind of farming to improve livelihoods, we realised we could also keep bees to help with pollination. This way, we could harvest completely clean honey, because we do not use agrochemicals on these farms. Without bees, our fruit trees cannot do well, and without trees, bees cannot survive either. That is why everything on this farm plays a key role.”

To understand how Iyale’s face is changing, one only needs to step into the model farm in Choke A village. Up here, the landscape is a dense, multi-layered blanket of green.

Right in the middle of the farm, a natural spring bubbles up from the ground, a direct result of the mountain’s capacity to hold water when the forest canopy is protected.

The farm operates as a closed-loop conservation agriculture model. Overhead, a young canopy of macadamia and avocado trees filters the mist, interspersed with rows of bananas and seasonal fruits. Beneath them, vegetables thrive in soil nourished entirely by organic waste. Nearby, a row of beehives sits quietly near a small forest within the farm, while a small unit of dairy cows is zero-grazed nearby, providing the manure that keeps the entire cycle moving.

 Nothing here is wasted, and every element feeds into the next.

Within the group, responsibilities are clearly organised. Men lead the harvesting, while women manage the value addition. Once harvested, the raw honey is packaged, and the byproduct wax is taken through intensive processing. The group uses this wax to manufacture candles and a specialised body cream known as Kilambo Soft.

Through a project being implemented by the conservation organisation Nature Kenya, the communities in Taita underwent intensive training on value addition and were provided with equipment to ease the production of these goods. The initiative is funded under the People Partnering with Nature for Sustainability project.

According to Gilbay Obunga, Nature Kenya’s project manager in Taita Taveta, these grassroots economic shifts are the ultimate goal of modern conservation.

"Such projects showcase how people can peacefully live with nature while being able to sustain livelihoods and even protect species that the world looks up to," Obunga notes.

The economic returns are already tangible. The group sells their Kilambo Soft body cream for between KSh 250 and KSh 1,000 depending on the size, while their candles go for KSh 300 in local markets.

Almost every member has carved out a unique speciality. Beatrice Mwashigadi, for instance, utilises the same harvested wax, blending it with shea butter and sunflower oil to manufacture organic lip balms.

“This is a perfect example of what happens when you take care of nature," Mwashigadi says. "The rivers flow again, the farms become healthier and produce in abundance, and we get money from adding value and selling these products.”

To expand their impact, community members have perfected the art of grafting fruit trees, particularly avocados and selling the seedlings to others who are eager to replicate the model.

The innovation takes a circular approach across the entire village. To sustain this momentum, Nature Kenya distributed improved kienyeji chicken to local groups, an initiative that inspired more innovations.

Pius Ikamba, one of the beneficiaries, has taken the livelihood initiative a step higher by incorporating the art of vermicomposting. Using specialised earthworms, Ikamba transforms everyday kitchen waste into organic solid fertiliser for his crops, while using the worms themselves to supplement his chicken feed. Through vermicomposting, Ikamba also produces and packages a liquid fertiliser known as vermijuice.

“I realised that chicken farming is a very good venture and the  population was constantly growing,” Ikamba says.  “This means I had to look for an innovative way to manufacture my own feeds from home. Interestingly, vermicomposting is not only helping me feed my chicken but also produces fertiliser to improve our farms as someone who lives upstream.”

With youth actively manufacturing their own organic fertiliser and communities uphill embracing organic farming and restoring degraded parts of the forests, the rivers can now flow to communities downstream.