The Impact of Kenya’s 2018 to 2023 Logging Moratorium on Forest Cover Change: A Case of Cherangany Hills Forest, Kenya

Forests provide essential goods and ecosystem services critical to human well‑being and environmental sustainability. Yet global deforestation continues to undermine these functions. In Africa, deforestation is driven by agricultural expansion, charcoal production, and unsustainable logging. This has prompted the adoption of sustainable forest management strategies to safeguard forest resources. Logging bans are one of the policy tools used, though their impacts are often complex, producing both intended and unintended outcomes. In 2018, the Kenyan government imposed a logging moratorium in public and community forests. It is not clear whether the policy has achieved its objective of curbing illegal logging and improving the country’s forest cover. This study aimed to assess the impact of the 2018–2023 moratorium on forest cover change in the Cherangany Hills Forest. The specific objectives were to: quantify the spatial extent and distribution of major land cover types in 2013, 2018, and 2023; analyse land cover change between the pre‑moratorium (2013–2018) and moratorium (2018–2023) periods, determining net forest loss or gain; and assess stakeholder perceptions of the moratorium’s impact and derive recommendations for policy and practice. The research employed a mixed‑methods approach, integrating remote sensing and GIS analysis with stakeholder perceptions. The results of the study indicate that during the moratorium, there was an improvement in forest cover by 8.1%. This represents areas converted from non-forest to forest. The net forest change improved from a loss of 962.73 ha in the pre-moratorium period to a loss of 630.52 ha during the moratorium, representing a 34.5% reduction in the rate of loss. However, the stability of the natural forest ecosystem declined, with an additional 1,586 ha of natural forest lost during the moratorium period compared to the pre-moratorium phase, indicating continued vulnerability of the natural forest despite the logging moratorium. In conclusion, the moratorium modestly improved forest enhancement and slowed net loss but failed to halt natural forest decline. Stronger measures such as boundary demarcation, community-inclusive governance, and restoration of fragmented areas are needed to improve the forest cover.