Mitigating Forest Fires
Fires on Mount Kenya are becoming a more regular threat, with the size, number, and severity varies from year-to-year depending on weather conditions. Some years, very little of the mountain burns, while other years there are large fires. Weather is a huge factor affecting risk. Under dry, windy conditions a small fire can easily spread and become difficult to extinguish, catching the forest canopy.
A Track Record In Wildfire Mitigation
Our rangers, joined by 6 KWS personnel and 6 community members have received elite fire training from Working On Fires, an organization based in South Africa. We have set up a high level fire prevention and management Stakeholder committee and carried out a number of activities withing the stakeholder groups by Forest station. These include fire awareness and firefighting equipment use in 9 key Forest Stations for a minimum of 20 Community Forest Association members per Forest Station between December 2021 and January 2022. Since 2019, we have trained and equipped 60 fire fighters across and beyond the Mount Kenya ecosystem to improve fire response.