In marking this year’s World Environment Day, Civil Society Organizations together with Community-Based Organizations and other grassroots actors in Kilifi County came together and planted more than 600 mangrove trees along Gastonia Beach in the County.
Speaking to the media, Winnie Masai who was representing Haki ni Yetu and Inform Action Organizations disclosed that their main theme for the day was to create awareness of environmental issues in line with this year’s theme which is: accelerating land restoration, building resilience, and combating desertification.
“We also want to promote collective action among the people. It is important for everyone to understand the importance of taking up responsibility for conserving the environment”, Masai added.
She pointed out some of the economic activities in the area that have led to the degradation of the environment like mining and stated that miners should be trained on ways of carrying out their activities that are friendly to the environment.
Public Relations and Communications Officer for 1 Million Trees for Kilifi CBO Jewel Omina stated that there is a need to increase the tree cover in Kilifi to at least 20% to counter the adverse climate change effects in the county.
“Our target is to plant 1 Million trees across the county and so far we have planted more than 100,000 trees. When we increase the percentage of tree cover in the county, we will not only help to conserve the environment, but we will also help to ensure food security in Kilifi”, Omina said.
Lucky Kazungu who was representing Leaf Charity Organization urged members of the community to nurture the environment especially the indigenous trees adding that the exploitation of such trees endangered the lives of living organisms who depend on the environment for survival.
“Many indigenous trees have been exploited and cut down, which has led to a big loss in our environment. For example, there’s a species of mushroom that cannot be found since it only grows around the indigenous trees that are no longer here”, Kazungu explained.
By Cynthia Maseno
