Forest Fires Incidences, Causes, and Associated Losses: A Case Study of Londiani Forest in Kenya

Abstract

This paper highlights the causes and associated losses of forest fires in the Londiani Forest block. The increasing demand for wood and non-wood forest products has exerted pressure on forest resources throughout the world. These resources are currently under siege due to many factors, the most important being the frequent occurrences of forest fires. Forest fire occurrence depletes forest cover and associated resources.  Londiani Forest Block falls within the high fire risk zone category and thus experiences frequent forest fires. However, these fires and their effects had not efficiently been researched and documented before. Despite putting numerous measures in place to reduce these destructive incidences, fires have continued to occur even more frequently. The increase in fire occurrences has also been attributed to climate change and the El Niño phenomenon that causes prolonged drought. In this study secondary data was obtained from fire records for five years from 2013 to 2017. The data included the number of fire occurrences; causes of each fire; species burnt; area burnt in hectares and estimated cost of damage in Kenya shillings. Data for rainfall and temperatures for each sample year was also collected. This was used to find out the relationship between the forest fire trends with the rainfall and temperature patterns in the study area. Evidence of fire such as charcoal sites, butts of burnt trees, regenerations and charred trees was used to complement the data. The target population was all the fire incidences for five years from 2013 to 2017 while the sample was one year with its occurrences, causes, and losses.