The Kakamega Forest lies 150 kilometres west of the Rift Valley in Kenya at an altitude of 1600 metres. It is the only surviving rain forest in Kenya and the eastern-most fragment of the Guinea-Congolian rainforest, which once stretched from Kenya across Uganda, Central Africa, and the West African Coast. Covering an area of 230 square kilometres, the forest is home to a considerable variety of habitat, including rainforest, swamp and riverine forest, colonising forest, disturbed forest, forestry plantations, natural glades, and recent clearings made for pit-sawing and charcoal burning. Closed canopy indigenous forest covers about 25% of the area. The forest is home to over 300 species of birds and 350 species of plants. About 10 to 20 percent of the animal species in the forest are not found elsewhere in Kenya.
Projects have brought together international and local organisations to diversify economic opportunities and increase productivity on existing agricultural lands at forest margins, relieving pressure on the forest.
