Community Livelihoods and Forest Protection through Forest Sound Apertures and Bio-Farm in Mau - Kenya

Maasai Community Outdoor Educators (MACORE) is a registered voluntary research-based community organization that promotes and protects the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Maasai Community. It works to advance informed choices on environment conservation, human rights, education and health and population issues through participatory research, advocacy, integrated capacity development activities and networking. Its current project “Community Livelihoods and Forest Protection through Forest Sound Apertures and Bio-Farm in Mau” is preventing deforestation and finding solutions to water scarcity.

Fast facts:

So far, this activity has protected 525 hectares of forest which stores about 94,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent;
More than 85,000 women and households across Narok County have adopted the bio-farming method;
The incomes of 3,886 women have been improved.

The problem

Traditionally, Maasai women depend on the forest for firewood. This, and outside illegal logging activities, has contributed to deforestation. The demand for inorganic fertilizer for farming across Kenya has also escalated carbon emissions.

The solution

This activity puts an end to deforestation, promotes organic fertilizer and is finding solutions to water scarcity. A ‘Forest Sound Aperture’ device uses a sensor to detect the sounds of illegal logging in the forest. Sensors are placed in strategic locations and relay sound vibrations to a central server unit. Information on illegal logging activities is collected and transmitted to an online map via a satellite modem transmitter in less than 40 seconds. The sensor picks the coordinates of the area where the sound vibrations are detected and they are noted on a map. In addition to these sensors, this activity has developed a bio-farming method, which combines rainwater harvesting, zero grazing, converts cow manure to biogas, replaces kerosene with biogas lanterns, produces guano manure from poultry as well as organic fertilizer from a biogas digester and utilizes intercropping together with greenhouse farming to provide optimum farm output and greatly improve household incomes. Women have been able to collect water at home instead of having to fetch water from the river, enabling them to use their time in other ways. Additionally the bio-farm has brought together an integrated and organic method of halting deforestation. Women no longer need firewood energy from the forest. This is because they now have bio-digesters at home that produce biogas for cooking and lighting.

Helping the planet

More than 3,000 households have shifted from using firewood for lighting to biogas. As a result, a large area within the Mau forest has increased vegetation and tree cover. Avoided deforestation has also improved carbon stocks in the forest.

Helping people

When women move away from firewood consumption to biogas lighting and cooking, their household carbon emissions are reduced significantly. Women are able to adapt to climate change by harvesting rainwater at home as well harvesting food from their biofarms. The biofarms are able to thrive due to organic fertilizer from the biogas digesters, empowering women to divert more energy toward other household and economic activities such as growing and selling tree seedlings.

Scaling Up

This activity can start with just one cow producing manure for the biogas digester. A farmer may begin small and expand as their energy needs increase. In addition to the biogas component, farmers are now exploring the option of trapping biogas into cylinders to sell as energy alternatives to firewood.