Karura Forest, Nairobi, Kenya

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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