Opinion: Let’s back forest management team to stem degradation

The taskforce to review forestry management in the face of massive deforestation, which has wiped out more than 500,000 acres of exotic and indigenous forests, degraded water catchment areas, leading to water rationing, deserves support from all Kenyans.

Indeed, it is the duty of the government to ensure the constitutional 10 per cent threshold of forest cover is achieved before the 2030 set target. Sadly, according to a study by Green Africa Foundation, an NGO, Kenya loses an astonishing 5.6 million trees daily, despite relentless campaigns on environmental conservation.

The research findings further reveal that 64.6 per cent of Kenya’s over 8.7 million households (based on the 2009 national population census) depend entirely on firewood as their cooking fuel, where each harvests between 10kgs and 20kgs of firewood daily.

The deforestation problem captures the situation on the African continent where studies show that at the end of 1990, Africa had an estimated 528 million hectares, or 30 per cent of the world’s tropical forests.

In several sub-Saharan African countries, the rate of deforestation exceeded the global annual average of 0.8 per cent. All Kenyans are in agreement that one of the biggest challenges facing the country is how to combat climate change.

COMING INTO CONFLICT

It is the realisation of the danger that climate change poses to current and future generations that compelled the government in 2013 to launch the National Climate Change Action Plan.

Climate change in Kenya and across East Africa has led to more frequent droughts, decreased yields of most important staple crops - maize and beans – and increased food insecurity.

Future water availability is also uncertain and these effects have even caused wild animals, such as lions and elephants, to wander further in search of water and food, coming into conflict with humans when they kill sheep and goats in the villages near national parks. Elephants have also been known to trample food crops when searching for food and water.

Now, the taskforce has been tasked with coming up with intervention measures including investigating viability of continuous planting of exotic trees inside gazetted community and government forests, re-introduction of shamba system to mobilise Kenyans to plant trees and strengthening of community forest associations, all aimed at combating climate change.

To complement this, the government should also seek other partners such as farmers’ organisations and donors currently engaged in tree-planting campaigns and other initiatives to combat climate change. As Farmers Party, we have rolled out tree-planting campaigns using our vehicle, the Farmers Awareness Foundation.

SURPASS

The foundation was established in recognition that due to increased human activity and climate change, Kenya, like other parts of the world, continues to experience tremendous depletion of forest cover.

The foundation has embarked on a tree-planting campaign with the aim of increasing tree cover by planting one million trees in counties, a further 1.5 million in semi-arid counties and 2 million trees in arable counties in an endeavor to contribute to the attainment of no less than the required 10 per cent forest cover.

Our campaign aims to help the country plant 100 million trees annually. It is imperative to note that forests are in danger of extinction in Kenya as over 80 per cent of the population uses fuel wood as their first choice source of energy thus depleting our water towers.

With a population of over 40 million people and an estimated annual growth of one million people, Kenya will need 100 million trees per year to survive. Therefore, to meet the required 10 per cent forest cover and sustain the above mentioned demand for trees, we need to plant over 7 billion trees.

Kenya can attain a 30 per cent tree cover in 10 years because it takes only seven years to establish a forest due to the favourable climate as opposed to 60 years in Europe.

The government should also consider planting trees in all gazetted national parks and game reserves which account for 8 per cent of Kenya’s land mass. This way the country will surpass the 10 per cent constitutional obligation and achieve more than 20 per cent of forest cover.