As forests in East Africa disappear, so does an industry of artisans

Nathan Siegel writing over at Mongabay:

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LUNGA LUNGA/HOROHORO BORDER POINT, Kenya/Tanzania – When Festus Tola first arrived in Lunga Lunga on the Kenyan side of the border with Tanzania, he encountered thousands of artisans just like him. It was an entire village of around 2,000 woodcarvers, who fashioned wooden animal statues and masks to be sold to a growing number of tourists in the region.

But that was 15 years ago. Tola, 50, is now one of no more than 40 carvers still remaining on the outskirts of Lunga Lunga. And he plans on leaving in the next month to look for other work back home in Machakos, Kenya, or nearby Mombasa.

“The woodcarving industry here is disappearing,” he said. “Maybe if you come back in a few years it won’t exist.”

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