KENYA: Kenyan villagers in the Mwingi region farm silk and honey to save their forests.

Record ID: 361031

  • Title: KENYA: Kenyan villagers in the Mwingi region farm silk and honey to save their forests.
  • Date: 12th March 2007
  • Summary: VIEW OF FLOWERS AND ACACIA FOREST VIEW OF FOREST
  • Embargoed: 27th March 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVAENFIJCE85V6YIC5V16YQLEUHL
  • Story Text: The people of Kenya's Mwingi region are helping to conserve their indigenous forests by using them to farm silk worms and honey, instead of chopping down the trees for charcoal and farmland.

    It used to be sole preserve of Chinese emperors, but now women in Kenya's eastern Mwingi district are weaving silk produced by worms in a nearby forest. It's an unusual setting for the industry, but it means they can earn a living, and it protects the community's indigenous Acacia forest.
    Kenya's eastern region suffers from very little annual rain fall, but Acacia trees thrive in these dry lands.
    Silk worms, the larvae of the bombcidae moth, originate in China and usually live off mulberry tree leaves. But they have been adapted to the East African tree and now thrive in the Acacia forests.
    Traditionally, these trees were used as fire wood and charcoal. But in an effort to conserve the forest ICIPE - an African-based institute for insect research and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are helping the local population benefit from the Acacia thorn trees.
    Local women look after the worms then produce silk for sale. It means they make enough income to buy other fuel so they need not cut down the same trees for firewood, and it ensures they have a renewable way of earning a living.
    "A lot of people cut down the acacia trees for charcoal. But once they cut them down that's the end. But if we leave the trees we can grow silk worms over and over, season after season. So it's better for us to look after the trees," says Esther Wekembe, who leads the women's group that looks after the worms.
    "Mostly in this you find a lot of acacia trees but because of the problems the people face they resort to cutting down trees and burning them for charcoal. And to release that this is a one time satisfaction. But if they raise commercial insects, the tree is food plant for the silk worms as well as flowers for the nectar for bee keeping. So one can have a double benefit. They can raise silk worms and they can also have bee harvest and make honey. So in the end of the day they are getting some money to improve their livelihoods," added Esther Kioko, a scientist with the project.
    Studies show that between 1990 and 2005, Kenya lost about 5 percent of its forest cover or around 186,000 hectares, which makes projects like this even more relevant and necessary.
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