Milestone as part of degraded Ontulili forest restored

The Kenya Forest Service on Saturday said it has achieved another key milestone in the implementation of the 2018 Taskforce on Forest Resources Management and Logging Activities in Kenya report with the restoration of Karuri site in upper Ngusishi, Ontulili forest station.

The previously degraded 500 Ha. site has now been rehabilitated through the support of Mt. Kenya Trust and the Ontulili Community Forest Association.

5,000 indigenous seedlings were planted on Saturday to mark the completion of the restoration initiative in an activity led by the Kenya Forest Service Chairman Mr Peter Kinyua, Mt. Kenya Trust CEO Susie Weeks and the CFA leadership.

The Taskforce report had flagged out the Karuri site for abuse of the intentions of the Plantation Establishment and Livelihood Improvement Scheme (PELIS) initiative.

PELIS is a nonresidential, and subsistence cultivation in forests that promotes food security for forest adjacent communities while establishing forest plantations.

In Ontulili Forest, the report noted huge tracts of forestland had been turned into large-scale commercial farms in total abuse of the PELIS system.

Mt. Kenya Trust has led the rehabilitation process through the provision of seedlings, logistical support to enable planting while the Community Forest Association has led tree planting and maintenance of the sites.

“I thank the Mt. Kenya Trust team for adopting the area and following through the commitment to rehabilitate the same,” said KFS Chairman Mr Peter Kinyua.

He also thanked the CFA members for their active involvement in the rehabilitation process while that noting better-conserved forests had the greatest benefits to adjacent communities.

Mr Kinyua has also called upon all Kenyans in areas experiencing rainfall to plant trees in available spaces while strictly observing COVID-19 prevention regulations and guidelines.