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.
