Residents of Lamu Island have welcomed the move by the government to lift the ban on cutting of mangrove forests. The residents said the 9 month ban had adversely affected them since most of them rely on mangrove forests for timber and firewood, civil rights activist Abdalla Fadhili thanked the government for reconsidering the ban saying thousands of households on the island rely on the forests both economically and socially noting many youths had been rendered jobless due to the ban.