Community Health Volunteers

Project overview • Community health volunteers is a community health volunteers established back in 2008 by the local volunteers based in Kakamega County, this project is based within Shinyalu Sub County of Kakamega County with its main office at Virhembe market in Shinyalu sub-county. • The main purpose of this project was as a result of the immense destruction of kakamega forest by both the locals and outsiders. • Kakamega Forest harbours immense and unique biodiversity due to its association with both lowland equatorial forest of central Africa and mountane forest of Kenya. Because of these unique contributions and island status, Kakamega Forest shows a high level of diversity and endemism • The IUCN has put Kakamega Forest as a top priority for biodiversity conservation in East Africa. • The key environmental problems in Kakamega forest ecosystem includes soil erosion, cultivation in riverbanks, deforestation and cutting down of tress, encroachment of forest boundaries, illegal and unsustainable harvest of forest products, high population growth rate increasing pressure on natural resource and food security. • Land cover and historical analyses suggest that approximately 30 % of the forest has been lost since it was gazetted in 1933 and 15% of indigenous forest with the gazetted kakamega forest was lost between 1972 and 2000, Although most of the large clearing and logging has stopped since the 1980, there remains a very high demand by the local community for timber products Objectives • Support community projects aimed poverty reduction through improved livelihood system and the of community natural resources and initiatives for enhanced management and governance • Build the capacity of other self-help groups • Public awareness education and actions to counter declining conservation status of Kakamega forest ecosystem and climate change impacts