MKT has been working in the Imenti Forest Reserve since 2017. The Upper and Lower Imenti Forest Reserves are two properties in the North East of the Mount Kenya protected area complex. They represent an ancient and important wet-season elephant refuge and historic migratory link to the Laikipia-Samburu ecosystem.
Upper Imenti Forest is situated in the north-eastern part of Mt. Kenya in Meru County. MKT has been working in Lower Imenti since 2017. So far we have planted over 310,000 trees are the site and we now have permission to plant another 100ha (100,000 trees) which is the project we are requesting support for.
Upper Imenti and Lower Imenti were designated as protected areas chiefly because of their value as wet-season elephant habitat. However, in the late 20th century the sites suffered from excessive habitat degradation and encroachment (Gathaara et al. 1999). Today they are surrounded by a ‘hard edge’ of small-scale farmland and other human settlements, also suffering from a large boundary to land area ratio. These factors, coupled with a history of poor community relations have seen the area become a hotspot of deforestation, human elephant conflict and associated poaching incidents. The area is now overrun by the invasive, exotic Lantana camara bush that prevents indigenous tree regrowth. This plant is thick and must be removed before seedlings can be planted.
Kenia