A Yiakku woman, Jane Naini Meriwas (in picture left above), from Kenya tells about her people's relation to the Earth and forest that:

"Forest is our dwelling, livelihood, life and that's where our holy shrines are found, caves where our grand father lives as homes, source of wild fruits which we depend on as food and natural herbal roots to cure our illness are there. Look, we have protected our land and forest at best with very limited knowledge.

The trees of lowlands and highlands have been instrumental in nurturing our existence - both human and animals. That is the basic nomadic pastoralist view the environment as godly nature and so they respect it. Remember cultivation was considered a curse - hitting the ground (God). So environment is never destroyed in anyway. It is unbelievable and costly for forest dwellers.

We are sensitive on the need to protect and preserve indigenous knowledge and culture that is almost facing extinction. Use of traditional ways exists to subdivide the territories where pastures are found through strict observation of rules among the community members.

Charcoal burning was too a taboo among our community, cutting of trees was too prohibited and thus the community was given guidelines on how to acquire firewood without destroying the trees.

We believe that our creator lives in these holy forests which we managed to maintain for centuries as natural forest.  We offer sacrifice during dry spelt drought periods for intervention from our creator Enkai – God inside the forest, using special trees to perform the sacrificed.

The knowledge is passed by the older generation to the young people on how to treat, protect and preserve the earth. In form of folktales, narratives, and singing we pass the messages to enable the community respect the environment.

As custodian of the earth, we co-exist with wildlife and nature as best friends though we may lose of our identity as forest dwellers, IImokoodo - if a lot of effort and pressure is not put to enable the Mukogodo forest return to Yaaku communities as their ancestral land.

Yaaku also constitute a traditional council of elders who foresee strict observance of forest, order and pass judgement and subsequent penalties for community members who do not respect the forest code.  Generations follow a traditional protocol and hierarchies arranged in age-groups (age-sets). Each age set has both a premier and a deputy to instill and administer the traditional law and constitution within an age set.  The small family units and clans harmoniously co-exist with each other in such a way that you can hardly notice any divisions."