Nairobi; Kenya: The Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources in conjunction with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) will throughout this week roll out the much anticipated green schools tree planting programme in all the 47 counties.
A statement from KFS communications department says the programme, which was launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nyandarua last year, will initially incorporate 51 public primary schools. "The launch will be co-ordinated by the service and presided by its top officials and other senior officers from the ministry," said the statement.
KFS says the identified schools will work with heads of conservancies and county ecosystem conservators in mobilising county governments, environmental officials and other stakeholders in rolling out the programme. KFS says the roll-out will run for a week beginning tomorrow to Friday. Already, the ministry has released funding for the same.
Public schools
The Green Schools programme is an initiative of the ministry and KFS, which aims at involving all the country's public schools in setting aside land for growing of trees in their compounds with funding from the Government and technical support from KFS.
The programmme aims to assist in greening the country as well as inculcating tree growing culture among children. In the programme, pupils will manage the trees to maturity and sell the same to KFS and other commercial tree buyers.
Launching the programme at Michinda Primary School in Nyandarua County last year, the Head of State lauded the initiative, which he said would see children planting about three million seedlings per year. Environment Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu said the initiative would accelerate the country's drive to achieve a 10 per cent forest cover as envisioned in Vision 2030 objectives.
Environment is an increasingly important issue in Kenya's development agenda with many communities directly relying on natural resources surrounding their localities to generate goods and services for consumption and income.
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