The long rains tree growing campaign in Embu County was launched this morning with chiefs urged to ensure 3000 trees are planted in each of the 51 locations.
County Commissioner Jack Obuo who launched the campaign at the Camp Ndunda Ecotourism site in Njukiri forest also instructed the county’s chiefs to ensure all schools planted trees in their compounds.
Obuo said besides indigenous and exotic tree seedlings, the government through the Kenya Forest Service would distribute 200000 avocado, 4,000 mango and 2000 macadamia seedlings free of charge as a way of ensuring food security, increasing household incomes while improving the county’s tree cover.
He said all government agencies have joined hands with county residents to participate in the larger campaign to plant 15 billion trees by 2032.
Embu County Forest Conservator Miriam Kamau said that although the county’s forest cover at 28 percent was above the national average, Embu residents could not afford to relax as the country still needed many more trees to mitigate against climate change.
She urged residents to mark their social occasions such as birthdays and weddings with tree planting activities as a permanent reminder of their special days.
She also said that for those with small compounds, there were dwarf fruit trees that did not take much space but still gave fruits.
She said they were working with communities to give those likely to illegally exploit forests to find alternative livelihoods and how to draw benefits legally.
In the cooperation, they work with communities living within ten kilometers of the forest boundary who take care of the forest while exploiting its resources in a non-harmful way through the community forest Association (CFA).
The chairman of the Njukiri CFA Jeremy Njiru Kinyua said their CFA ensures nobody destroys the forest while they are able to get firewood, livestock fodder and other products from the forest, they also participate in reforestation programmes when needed.
By Steve Gatheru
