Kenya forest
Kakamega Forest
User:Doron · CC BY-SA 3.0
97% trees around it and 580 species recorded.
- trees within 3 km97%
- wild within 10 km91%
- species recorded580
- Altitude1,604 m
The forest around
97% trees.
Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.
Trees, ring by ring
- 0–1 km100%
- 1–3 km96%
- 3–6 km91%
- 6–10 km76%
What covers the land (1–3 km)
- Trees96%
- Shrubland0%
- Grassland2%
- Cropland1%
ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.
Who lives here
580 species recorded.
The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.
Open records within 5 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.
In numbers
The forest, measured.
Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).
- 97%Treesof the land within 3 km
- 91%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
- 580Speciesrecorded more than once within 5 km
- 1,604 mAltitudeabove the sea
When to walk
Best for walking from June to July and from December to January.
How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.
- Jan13°52 mm
- Feb13°49 mm
- Mar14°128 mm
- Apr14°275 mm
- May14°260 mm
- Jun14°173 mm
- Jul14°159 mm
- Aug14°201 mm
- Sep14°188 mm
- Oct14°200 mm
- Nov14°175 mm
- Dec13°89 mm
- Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
- Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
- Rain: monthly total.
The place
Kakamega Forest.
Protected area of Kenya
Kakamega Forest is a forest in Kenya, 1,604 m above the sea.
Seen from space, 97% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 91% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.
580 species have been recorded around it: 138 plants, 19 fungi, 386 birds and 37 mammals.
The most recorded plants are: Earleaf nightshade, Tree marigold and White stinkwood.
The best time to walk is from June to July and from December to January.
Get there and walk
- Kakamega Forest Resthouse & Campsitecampsite · 3.8 km · 4 within 10 km
- Rondo Retreatplace to stay · 4.5 km · 4 within 10 km
- Khayeganearest town · 15 km in a straight line
- Eldoret International Airport (EDL)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 41 km in a straight lineCar hire at NBO airport (Nairobi)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The forest and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 1named and notable trees within 6 kmMama Mutere tree (fallen)
- 4campsites within 10 kmKakamega Forest Resthouse & Campsite, Lago Western Farm & Birding Spot, Udo's Campsite (Kakamega Forest National Reserve) and 1 more
- 4places to stay within 10 kmRondo Retreat, glorious house, Isukuti guesthouse and 1 more
- marked trails within 5 km
- picnic sites within 4 km
- shelters and huts within 6 km
- viewpoints within 5 km
- visitor centres within 6 km
- car parks within 3 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
Around Kakamega Forest.
The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.
Peakyas3 mountains within 25 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The forest, as people saw it.
Other forests nearby.
Kakamega Forest
Kenya
- 83Forestyas Score
- 97%Trees
- 91%Wild
- 580Species
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q1397614) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Land cover | ESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0 |
| Species | 105,296 open records within 5 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only) |
| See these records | gbif.org |
| Names and photos | Wikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Temperature and rain | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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