Fourth Institutional Colloquium Report

A report on KEFRI's 4th Institutional Scientific Colloquium held on 14^th July 2022 at KEFRI Auditorium

The 4th KEFRI Institutional Colloquium was held on 14th July 2022 at KEFRI headquarters’ auditorium. Participation to the event was hybrid with staff at headquarters, CHERP and NFPRP attending physically while those from other eco-regional programmes and non KEFRI staff attending virtually. Physical participants were 96 while virtual participants were 86. The colloquium started at 10.10am with an introduction to the program by Dr. Mbuvi (M.T.E) who invited Dr. Nyambati to steer the program through. Dr. Robert Nyambati invited Mr. Gitehi Giathi to officially open the event with a word of prayer and thereafter welcomed all participants including newly recruited staff attending, and the Forest Society of Kenya’s virtual participants. Dr. Robert Nyambati also recognized Dr. Victor Jaoko who had just acquired his PhD and invited Dr. Jackson Mulatya who introduced and invited Dr. James Kimondo for presentation both as the day’s speaker and acting Director-KEFRI.

Title of address: Increasing forest cover in Kenya for wealth creation: paradigm shift from planting and abandoning to planting and caring

Speaker : Dr. James Kimondo – Ag. Director (KEFRI) and Deputy Director-Forest Products Improvement.

Speaker Profile: *View it here*

Key Highlights

Dr. Kimondo informed the forum that he was holding brief for transition of leadership at KEFRI for an estimated two months in line with the principle of avoidance of conflict of interest as the institute goes through the recruitment process of a new director.

His interest has been in the plantation due to the concern that things regarding plantations are getting done the same way regardless of the fact that “time has moved.”

Plantation forestry started early in the 19^th Century. It was realized that indigenous plantations were taking long and could not supply raw materials at required rates. Species that were initially introduced include Cypress, Pinus spatula, Eucalyptus (for fuel), Pinus gradiata among others.

Plantation management practices were initially borrowed from South Africa and some of these included:

• Establishing dense plantations,
• Pruning to prevent fire and for accessibility
• Pruning and thinning for timber Some of the legal and regulatory policies affecting plantation management in Kenya include:
• 1987 ban of Shamba system
• 1994 structural adjustment programme (led to loss of labor due to massive retrenchments)
• Legal notice no. 21 of 2016 In 1960, due to the need to manage changing plantation density, plantation spacing trials were done. A thinning practice was adopted where by you plant 1600 trees and thin 888 trees at 7years, 533 trees at 12 years, 355 trees at 17 years and 266 trees at 22 years.

Current Issues in local plantations:

One of the current issues in Kenyan plantations was presented as low funding to carry out all silviculture operations.

Speaker’s Proposals

(I) Regime

The speaker proposed establishment of a regime that ensures the following:

Reduces the volume of work at all stages

• Encourages farmers to stay in the field so that they can take care of trees as they cultivate
• Introduce improved germaplasm
• Do not require removal of young trees at early age.

(II) Spacing and Thinning

a) Adoption of a spacing of 3.5m by 3.5m (816 stems/hectare)

b) Only two commercial thinnings be done in the following order:

• 1^st thinning at 12 years -381 trees are removed
• 2^nd thinning at 17 years -157 trees are removed c) Plantation be cleared at 25 years

For private farms:

d) Planting spacing be 5.8m x 2.1m (820 stems/hectare)

e) 1 thinning of 50% at 12years

f) Largest trees be harvested at 12years and small ones be retained for between 25-28years

(II) Mechanization

Adoption of mechanization that ensures:

a) Proper size of holes are prepared to enhance seedlings survival

b) Adequate spacing of rows to allow for machines such as tractors to move through

Q & A SESSION DISCUSSIONS

	QUESTION / CONCERN	SPEAKER’S RESPONSE
a)	Mechanization is likely to deny local labor opportunities	Community members will get other things to done
b)	Some institutions in forestry go for wider trees when doing thinning	Professionalism should be adopted in undertaking thinning and plantation management activities
c)	What was the role of the moratorium in forestry, and how did it affect socio-economics and environment	The moratorium helped in sobering up bad practices in forestry
d)	Wouldn’t thinning dominant trees knock down the weaker trees?	Good harvesters should ensure that they minimize collateral
e)	Which way in terms of spacing as forestry practitioners move to pulp industry	It is crucial to look at small spacing when looking at pulp production. End use is important in determining spacing.
f)	What rationale had informed initial plantation thinning stages	In Kenya it started as trial and error but later on South Africa trials helped indicate growth curve
g)	Which way for marginal areas	Some plantations such as Mellia are getting pushed towards other areas that would be viewed as marginal.
GENERAL POINTS OF INFORMATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
i	Farmers should be encouraged to grow seeds from orchads
ii	Improved seeds from germplasm are getting adopted which will lead to quality products
	It is important that plantation practices be informed by global happenings in the same field
iii	Shamba system should be back/revived and if possible privatize certain areas as meant for plantations
	Stamps and slopes can hinder mechanization. It is therefore important to look at gradients of slopes and assess their suitability for mechanization
iv	Plantations should not be bare on the ground. Practices that encourage water retention should be the way to go.

Speaker’s Announcement

The speaker concluded the session by announcing the availability of a “WhatIs” dictionary on Knowledge Management system and invited scientist to visit and add definitions of special terms that they have built from long term practice of their research in KEFRI.

Vote of Thanks

The vote of thanks was given by Dr. Nyambati including recognition of Dr. Inoti from Egerton university, the Media house available and Forest Society of Kenya among other attendees.

Head - KM Announcement

The head of Knowledge Management (Sheila Mbiru) gave a vote of thanks to the presenter and participants and acknowledged all knowledge management champions available while inviting new staff to register with KM systems including the library. The head KM also informed of the forthcoming 4^th colloquium by eminent scientist on 4^th August, Dr Walter Oyawa, and invited participants to propose future Presenters by writing to km@kefri.org.

Event’s Closure

The session ended with a word of prayer from Nelly Oduor (NFPRP) for the session and refreshments at 22.30am.

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Submitted by PatrickKwiriga on 02 Aug 2022