17 September 2012: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) has highlighted its support for the protection of the Kikuyu Escarpment Forest through a youth-led project that has received several international awards. The GEF SGP project protects biodiversity at risk from illegal timber harvesting, encroachment and poor resource management.

The “Awareness campaign and capacity building for community participation in conservation and sustainable use of the Kikuyu Escarpment Forests” project supports a youth organization, the Kijabe Environment Volunteers (KENVO), to empower the peri-forest communities in using a participatory forest management approach to benefit from forest conservation and eco-tourism.

Among the project’s achievements, GEF SGP reports, are the planting of trees to rehabilitate degraded areas, the creation of monitoring and policing activities to reduce illegal forest use and raising awareness on sustainable forest use practices. The project also established an environmental network of religious leaders in the district, and constructed a cottage where two opposing ethnic groups are able to share the income and discuss issues regarding the joint management of Osutua camp. [GEF Press Release]