GROW CROPS IN THE FORESTS OR NOT?

Photo credit: Courtesy.

PELIS....You know what it means? 

In the past few day, there has been a heated debate following the DP's pronouncement that farmers should be allowed to grow crops in the forest. By the way it's been happening from 2005, even right now. What changed was the directive by the CS for Environment and Forest, that other crops would be grown but not maize. Let me weigh in as below...

Plantation Establishment and Livelihood Improvement Scheme (PELIS) is a scheme introduced after enactment of the Forest Act, 2005. It is a governance scheme by Kenya Forest Service (KFS) to help increase forest cover and restore degraded forests in the country. Forest adjacent communities (FAC) living within 10 km around forests benefit from the scheme where they are allocated plots upon which they grow their crops and help to plant tree seedlings, take care of them till the area forms a closed canopy. After the canopy formation by trees, farming in that particular area stops and the farmers can be moved elsewhere where they can do farming and grow more trees. Cultivation of crops is often allowed to continue for 3 to 4 years until tree canopy closes. PELIS scheme is meant to improve tree survival and reduce cost of establishing tree plantations and engage communities in benefiting from the surrounding forests.

The 2005 Forest Act provides a legal framework that requires requires forest adjacent communities to register a Community Forest Associations (CFAs) and participate in joint management with Kenya Forest Service for identified forest area.The Act confers user and access rights to CFA;  to graze their livestock, develop eco-tourism projects and practise bee-keeping in designated forest areas but they also assume responsibilities of carrying out some conservation and protection activities.

In 2016, The Forest Act of 2005 was then revised into the Forest Conservation and Management Act No. 34 of 2016 which retained Participatory Forest Management ( PFM) as a pillar to the conservation of forest resources in Kenya. This is an incentive system anchored in section 48 and 49 of the Forest Management and Conservation Act of 2016, which allows forests adjacent communities, through Community Forests Associations (CFAs) to use forestlands for food crop production while supporting forest establishment phase. 

The land which the community members are given is usually the forest land under plantation when the trees have been harvested or when re-establishing degraded areas of the forest. The portions are sub-divided through a balloting method among the CFA members. Once a CFA member has been given a portion, they are required to pay an annual commitment fee depending on the portion of land owned to the Kenya Forest Service (KFS). A quarter an acre costs Kshs. 250 (about USD 2.50) which is paid once every year until the trees grow.

FARMER RESPONSIBILITY

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Seedling theft, grazing, inflicted damages, uncontrolled burning of field debris, pests and disease influence survival rate of newly planted seedlings. Farmers enrolled in PELIS system are therefore charged with the responsibility of helping with  the clearing of area intended for planting or replanting,  cultivating the the land, taking part in actual planting of seedlings provided by KFS, protecting the seedlings from animals or pest damages by weeding the trees as they weed their crops. Reporting any sign of disease attack to forest management. At some point they even help in transporting the seedlings in the ox- drawn carts, when forest road become impassable.

What happens when the farmers are removed from the equation?

✓ There is low survival rate of seedlings. Meaning the forest plantation will be written off or beaten up( gapped) at a cost running into thousands.

✓There will be no free labour. As a practicing Forester i will tell you that labour cost  to plant just one acre of trees  isn't small amount of money. The high cost of labour translates into less forests planted. 

✓Higher maintenance cost. Control of weeds, animals, pests,  rodents etc have a cost. 

✓Some areas won't be planted. Forest roads are not all-weather roads. Planting is done during rainy seasons. As the vehicles won't reach some area, such area won't be planted.

✓ Human vandalism by locals who feel offended/ conflicted. They even uproot planted seedling in protest. Unregulated grazing  

✓Weakened  CFA spirit and lack of revenue that was regenerated by selling PELIS permits.

FACTS AND FIGURES ON GAINS OF PELIS

A 2016 research on the PELIS approach in Western Kenya also shows similar results of increased forest coverage. The research published in the American Journal of Agriculture and Forestry found that between 2001 and 2016, there was an increase of 114hectares (51%) of area under forest in Malava Forest, Kakamega County.

PELIS  is a system that has been used Kenya Forest Service (KFS) to achieve 12.13 % tree cover and  8.83 %  forest cover up from 5.9 percent of 2018, if the National Forest Resources Assessment (NFRA) Report 2021 is anything to go by. 

Source https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/html/10.11648.j.ajaf.20160405.13.html

1. Higher  Tree Seedling Survival: Tree seedling survival under PELIS is generally good. Case studies done in Gathiuru, Kamae and Thogoto registered over 75% survival compared to Bahati, Timboroa and Dundori that had survival below 75% 

2. Increased Forest cover :The area under PELIS increased from 2933 ha in 2010/2011 financial year to 9939 ha in 2012/2013 

3. Low plantation establishment cost: PELIS has economic  benefits to both Kenya Forest Service and farmers. Kenya Forest Service benefits from; low plantation establishment costs and high tree seeding survival. Case studies on cost benefit analysis have shown farmers benefiting from PELS with a net present vaue for 4 years at Ksh. 1,272,573/ha. In the case study potato growing was about four times more profitable than maize and beans 

LESSON LEARNT

• Farmers will participate in PELIS if they perceive a positive economic gain.

• Contribution of PELIS to the economy is in the range of Ksh. 14 bilion.

• Implementation of PELIS through Community Forest Associations has been successful due to their governance structures and joint agreements with KFS.

• Raising plantation under PELIS is cost effective.

• PELIS can pay a major role in ensuring national food security.

Source: click here

Kenya is among the 141 countries which committed to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 at the twenty-sixth Conference of Parties (COP26) held in Glasgow, United Kingdom. Approaches such as PELIS could go a long way to help Kenya achieve this course and its own national target of achieving 10% forest cover by 2030. If we are to achieve this, then there is no reason to opposed well structured PELIS system with all stakeholders playing their roles to the letter.