Karura
Forest is a large forested area in the city of Nairobi in Kenya –
it is an urban forest, yet it is vast and dense.
Karura Forest was gazetted in
1932 and is managed by the Kenya Forest Service with the Friends of Karura
Forest Community Association. It is 1,041 hectares of land (2,570 acres), split
into three sections by two roads. Karura has over 50 kilometres of trails for
visitors to walk, run or bike.
As of mid-2016, 36% of the forest
contains indigenous upland forest tree species. The forest is home to about 200
species of bird as well as a range of animals, such as the bushbucks, honey
badgers, bush babies, porcupines, monkeys, fruit bats, reptiles and
butterflies.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner and
head of the Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai, was instrumental in campaigning
for the conservation of the forest land and preventing the development of
housing.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom
(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest
Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The
Sudan Curse (2009).
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