Kisii People - Agriculture and Biodiversity in Kisii

Agriculture and Biodiversity in Kisii

In the past, Kisii was a heavily forested area, with old indigenous broadleaf rainforest trees and other flora. It was part of the old Congo Basin forests. The only remnant of this old forest in Kenya is the Kakamega Forest, which is the westernmost tip of the Equatorial rainforest. The two ancient forest areas were linked through Nandi and Kericho, before the Nandi and Kericho areas were cleared for tea farming and settlement. Now most of the tree life in Kisii consists of members of 4 tree families, all of them introduced from outside the continent. The most common trees in Kisii are the Eucalyptus spp. family (blue gum/eucalyptus), Grevillea robusta and Black Wattle (Acacia mearnsii). All these three species are native to Australia. Finally, there is the Cupressus spp. family (cypress) native to South America. Other plant life forms are cultivated tea, bananas, maize, coffee and napier grass, with very little remaining of indigenous biodiversity.

It has been theorized that in future Kisii will increasingly be 'colonized' by the above few species of plants, as there is little awareness or even desire to re-plant the slow-growing and less economically valuable indigenous plant forms. This is aggravated by land shortage and reduced need for traditional herbal medicine, that has now been surpassed by modern hospitals and medical care.