1. CHAPTER ONE1.1. INTRODUCTIONForest resources contribute significantly to Kenya's economy. The agricultural sector, manufacturing and processing industry and tourism sector, which form the backbone of the country's economy, depend directly or indirectly on our dwindling forest resources. Kenya's major river systems (Tana, Athi and Ewaso Nyiro) draw their water from mountain forest catchment areas. These rivers flow through the country providing fresh water for domestic use, industrial processing, irrigation and hydroelectric generation. Like the Tana River, which alone supplies water to the seven fork hydroelectric power plants, providing more than half of the country's electricity. In addition, the forest provides building and weaving materials for the paper industry, herbal medicine, wild fruits and honey, regulates rainfall patterns, reduces sedimentation loads in our rivers and provides environmental stability. In 2003 Kenya's forest had shrunk to 1.4 million hectares, or less than 2% of the country's land area 56.9 million hectares 15% of Kenya's land area (Kenya Forest Working Group), according to the FAO group of the United Nations Kenya is therefore unstable from an environmental point of view. “Any country with less than 10% of its territory covered by forest is environmentally unstable.” (United Nations FAO). The world's forests currently cover approximately 4 billion hectares, or 31% of the world's land surface. The distribution of the world's forests is shown in Figure 1.1. Illustrates the distribution of forests on a global scale. Other forested lands cover approximately 1.1 billion hectares (FAO 2010). The world's forest areas can be seen in Table 1.1. Fig 1.1 Distribution of world forests (Source FAO 2006) Table 1.1 Global distributions by region (...... center of sheet ......stigation (Lillesand et al ., 2008). Satellite sensors in space record the amount of electromagnetic energy reflected from various objects on the Earth's surface at various wavelengths. From spectral response patterns, information about objects is obtained through the analysis of remote sensing data different eras it is possible to detect changes. With the analysis of temporal changes, it is possible to carry out monitoring of forest destruction. The knowledge gained from this information provides a basis for decision making in efforts to address deforestation establish factual information on the status of the Nyambene Hills Forest, in the Meru North District of Meru County, whose reported danger of extinction has attracted the public and many environmental organizations considering the value of these forest resources.