Friends of Karura: Reclaiming Nairobi's Urban Forest

When local residents formed Friends of Karura Forest in 2009 to co-manage the roughly 1,000-hectare forest with the Kenya Forest Service, illegal logging, charcoal burning, quarrying and land grabbing had stripped much of it bare. Since then the community forest association has planted over 200,000 indigenous trees, pushing native tree cover from about 25% to roughly 60%, and built 50 kilometres of walking and cycling trails through the restored canopy. The forest, entirely inside Nairobi's city limits, now draws around 75,000 visitors a month and supports over 260 recorded bird species, funded largely through modest entrance fees rather than donor money.