It's another public holiday as state pushes tree planting agenda

Forestry Principal Secretary Gitonga Mugambi. [Courtesy]

The reason why citizens should stick to seedlings provided by the Ministry is to avoid planting trees that are not suitable for certain environments.

For instance, trees like white cedar, black gum, and bald cypress among others are likely to soak up water when planted, and precipitate drought.

Besides the tree-growing initiative, the government is also involved in other ecosystem restoration activities like creating gullies, and gabions to minimise erosion.

"In Kenya, we have 38 million hectares that have been degraded in the country in different areas and all need to be restored. In the plan, out of the degraded hectares, we have targeted around 10.6 million hectares which are severely degraded and we believe can give an immediate result," he said.

He explained that one of the ways that the government plans to minimise landslides in the country is by planting trees with roots that can penetrate deep to prevent the soil from sliding.

Even though some countries like Japan have ventured into anchoring the soil by having metal bars deeply dug into the ground to hold the soil, the PS thinks this is expensive.

He argued that with enough tree cover then the water will sink into the ground preventing landslides.

The PS noted that as much as the ministry contributes 3.6 per cent of the national GDP, it still has the potential to increase this to 15 per cent.

"If we incorporate the private sector into forestry and open industries then we will solve unemployment and even grow the economy," he said.

Currently, the planting initiative is estimated to cost Sh.1.3 billion but the ministry anticipates that after 15 years, the trees will be valued at 150 billion.

Kenya banned the logging of indigenous trees through various legislations and presidential decrees since 1964.

Still, the logging issue poses a threat to the indigenous plantation, especially considering the lifting of the moratorium by the president in 2023.

"Forest and plantation are grown to be harvested at some point, that's why we have indigenous forests at 95 per cent and plantations at 5 per cent which constitutes 150,000 hectares out of 2.6 million hectares of total forest cover," Mugambi said.

He explained that with the supervision of the Kenya Forest Service, the community take care of the trees for a minimum of three years and once the number of surviving trees meets the demands then they are assigned to another location.

On whether the existence of commercial forests and national plantations side by side would fuel logging activities, the ministry has assured that the "national plantation now acts as a buffer to the forests."

Despite all the perceived risks, the ministry still encourages tree planting to protect water catchment areas to avoid flooding.