Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development Cabinet Secretary, Alice Wahome, on Wednesday led staff from the State Department for Lands in planting 15,000 tree seedlings at the Gathiuru Forest Station in Kieni, Nyeri County.
According to Ms Wahome, the exercise is in support of the government’s Jaza Miti Campaign, where the State is targeting to plant at least 15 billion trees by the year 2032, as well as the presidential directive to Kenyans to support the forest restoration efforts by planting at least 300 trees per year.
“In the past two months we have planted 20,000 seedlings and today we have planted 15,000 seedlings. We are determined to contribute to the 15 billion trees within the presidential programme and we hope that in the next 10 years we shall attain the set target,” stated the CS.
Ministry of Lands through its three state departments, is targeting to plant 100 million trees by 2032. In Nyeri, the Ministry of Lands has adopted 593 Hectares for the tree growing campaign, out of this the Ministry has planted trees on over 70 Hectares of degraded forest land.
The CS revealed that in the last six months, a total of 126,400 seedlings had been planted and added that her Ministry is working with other state agencies to achieve the target.
While acknowledging the role of Community Forest Association (CFA) members in nurturing the seedlings to maturity, Ms Wahome also promised to support the CFAs by facilitating trainings on forest management.
Ms Wahome also said that her Ministry will also partner with that of Environment to align some of the regulations of the Forest Act of 2016 with the CFA rules to ensure that they foster peaceful co-existence between the forest adjacent communities and Kenya Forest Service.
“One thing that has come out is the strong CFA and I am happy they are working with the County Conservator. We have agreed with the CFA that we will work together to be able to take care of the seedlings we plant and also the existing trees,” she stated.
“We will come up with a formula, within the Forest Regulations, on how to manage the trees to boost food security and provide livelihoods for the community, who are willing to work with us. We will work with the Ministry of Environment on that, but we will train the teams first, to understand the boundaries they are not allowed to cross so that we do not do an exercise in futility where we are planting trees while others are uprooting them,” added Ms Wahome.
Nyeri County is leading in both forests and tree cover in the country at 40.89 per cent and 45.17 per cent respectively. The county has also set an ambitious target of attaining a forest cover of 43 per cent by 2027 and at least 50 per cent before the end of the decade. But despite recording the high percentages, the CS also challenged residents to boost the government’s efforts by adopting the tree planting culture in their homes.
“The 15 billion should also be contributed by Kenyans so that outside the tree planting exercise, we must also take up the mantle and plant trees on our farms and in our homes. The growing of that tree by you and your family is critical,” she said.
Nyeri County Commissioner and acting Central Region Commissioner, Ronald Mwiwawi said that the National Government Administrative Officers, had embarked on an aggressive campaign of planting at least 3,000 trees every month in their localities.
Mwiwawi said that the goal is to boost food security and to mitigate the negative effects of climate change, which he said pose a risk to future generations. He said that the county had so far 2.75 million trees but projected that the numbers could go higher as the campaign now targets individuals who own land.
“We are encouraging members of the public to plant more trees in their private residence. I am certain that if we adopt the one government approach, where we work with government agencies which are providing us with seedlings, the future generations will find a clean environment and our country will go back to being food secure,” he said.
Nyeri Forest Conservator, Esther Mugo thanked the government for deploying additional forest rangers who she said will support the Kenya Forest Service surveillance network and help in stemming illegal activities in the forest.
Ms Mugo said that they are now targeting the Arid and Semi-arid area of Kieni Constituency where the Lands Ministry will partner with institutions to increase the area’s tree cover.
“Once we have finished rehabilitating the degraded forests, we shall move to Kieni Constituency, which covers 52 per cent of the county. We intend to work together with institutions to help us accelerate the realization of our target as a county,” she said.
By Wangari Mwangi
