Residents teamed up with the Makueni County Directorate of Environment during routine mapping and discovered degradation through herding and deforestation across the Yekanga Hill in Makueni Sub-county, Muuni and Mbui Nzau Hills in Kibwezi West sub-County, Makueni County. This explained the water shortage in the streams for domestic and agricultural use.
The County Directorate of Environment sensitized the community on the importance of forests and dangers of deforestation and the now informed residents, through public participation allocated budgets towards reclamation.
Reclamation included afforestation programmes using indigenous species to guarantee survival and climate resilience; terracing of the hills and grass reseeding (planting) to help in soil conservation and vegetation cover restoration to slow the speed of water and reduce landslide incidences; and employment of forest guards from the community to keep off deforestation perpetrators such as people involved in the charcoal business and herders. These efforts have borne fruit, with the hills showing signs of recovery.