Ngong Forest is around 600 hectares and is the only indigenous forest of its size in a city anywhere in the world. It is only 6km from the centre of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. In the past, the trees in the Ngong Forest were finely distributed. As time and events changed, the forest kept on being encroached to satisfy human beings unsatisfied needs. With no one to save the forest, some hectares had already been poached away and turned to residential buildings. What a shame! Everybody seemed to be blind to what was going on. It took sometime before someone could stand his ground and question the depletion of the rare indigenous trees that take so long to mature. It was the late Imre Loefler who spent day and night fighting with people in high places who were grabbing the land. He got together a group of trustees and it was a very difficult job but they managed to salvage the forest and all the title deeds that had been allocated to the land grabbers. The title deeds were cancelled and given back to the trustees. Now the forest is saved and not only is it a beautiful place to go but it acts as a carbon sink to absorb the pollution emitted by cars and industry in the city of Nairobi.

Nicholas Akash

help us and share this