State working on strategy to increase tree cover - CS Tuya

The government is working on a strategy to guide stakeholders as it embarks on achieving 30 percent tree cover by 2032.

Forestry CS Soipan Tuya says that the strategy will help the government plan to fill an area of 10.6 hectares that has been marked out.

Tuya says that those areas include degraded forests, community lands, roadsides and highways, arid and semi-arid areas, riparian areas, hilltops, and mangrove areas among other areas.

“We are working on an elaborate strategy that guides the government to achieve 30 percent tree cover by 2032 and which will be launched in the coming days,” she said.

She spoke at Kinale forest in the old Kijabe block, where she witnessed the signing of a climate action framework between the Kenya Forest Service and  Safaricom PLC.

The climate action framework saw Safaricom having adopted a forest at the block that will see the 5 million trees planted.

Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said the trees will support President William Ruto’s vision of achieving 30 percent tree cover.

He says that they will be planting trees and looking after them together with the local Community Forest Association for the period of five’s years they have adopted the forest.

Adopt a forest strategy is a policy that has seen corporate bodies, government departments, embassies, and other stakeholders being allowed to plant trees in the forest. The trees are taken care of by the KFS for five years.

Tuya and Ndegwa were accompanied by Absa Bank CEO Yusuf Omari, Kiambu governor Kimani Wamatangi, and Lari deputy county commissioner Samuel Kariuki.

Others were deputy chief conservator Beatrice Mbula, Kiambu County ecosystem conservator Thomas Kiptoo, and Kinale forester Simon Mwema among other KFS officers.

Omari says they will partner with Safaricom to also plant 5 million trees in the block.

Wamatangi pledged to work closely with the KFS and the CFA to ensure the government achieves its target.

Tuya added that the framework they are working on will see stakeholders such as county governments, corporate bodies, learning institutions, and faith-based organization among others participating more.

The CS elaborated that, at least 80 private primary schools and a total of 1,880 public primary schools will participate by setting up tree nurseries and water harvesting equipment so as to start training pupils to grow trees when they are still young.