The Woody Weeds project will finish this year. Nevertheless, new initiatives will continue the work and use the knowledge generated by project activities to support implementation of the Kenyan National Prosopis Strategy (NPS).
The successful Woody Weeds project has generated knowledge about the invasion by Prosopis and Lantana in Eastern Africa, which was in part the result of work done by eight PhD and ten MSc students, who did (and do) their research on social and ecological effects and the management of these species as part of the Woody Weeds project. Throughout the six years of the project, the team members closely cooperated with stakeholders from the local to the national level in each of the three target countries, i.e. Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia.
The results and knowledge generated through the Woody Weeds project, which have been published in leading international journals, are being utilised in two follow-up projects and for decision making on the national scale. Moreover, participants in the Woody Weeds project are members of national working groups that develop strategies to deal with invasive alien species (IAS) in all three countries where the project operates.
Schematic view of the overlap of the Woody Weeds projects, follow-up projects and the implementation phase of the Kenyan National Prosopis Strategy.
Last year, a Transformation Acceleration Grant was awarded to the Woody Weeds team in Kenya and Switzerland under the Swiss r4d programme, which aims to participate in the development of the Kenyan NPS and to upscale our currently on-going activities at the local scale to co-design Prosopis management at the County level. This small project will continue until the end of 2021. The main focus of the activities funded by the Grant will be on Baringo County and will be out-scaled to a second County.
A new project, “Woody Weeds +”, brings together Swiss and Kenyan partners of the Woody Weeds project, the University of Nairobi and Farmbetter Ltd. Woody Weeds + will implement the newly established NPS, jointly with relevant stakeholders, in a target area stretching from West to East along the southern edge of Kenya’s northern rangelands, targeting areas in Baringo, Isiolo and Tana River counties. Farmbetter Ltd. will contribute an app which will help boosting information dissemination, awareness raising and decision support within and beyond the target area. The new project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
The two new projects described above focus on Kenya, but the Woody Weeds partners are also exploring opportunities to continue with our activities in Ethiopia and Tanzania.