The government has lifted the
ban on mangrove logging in Lamu county.
The announcement was made on
Tuesday by KFS Deputy Chief of Forests Charity Muthoni.
The ban was imposed in February last year with the objective of increasing the county's forest cover and curbing illegal logging that has massively destroyed water towers.
The move, however, applies only to Lamu and the ban remains in force in all other parts of Kenya.
The ban was initially meant to last for only 90 days but was extended in May by the then Environment CS Keriako Tobiko.
It was to allow for the appointment of the Kenya Forestry Service board and also for the finalisation of the interim reform implementations committee.
The announcement will come
as a relief to the more than 30,000 families that depend directly on mangrove logging trade for their livelihood.
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Speaking in Lamu, Muthoni said the KFS had taken into consideration all the pleas and the amount of suffering caused by the logging ban on local communities dependable on mangroves.
The KFS official said the loggers will still have to adhere to a new set of rules.
The loggers will now have to obtain a mandatory permit from the KFS office in Lamu.
They will also have to list their experience in the mangrove harvesting business and also state their market for the harvested product.
Muthoni also stated that the loggers will have to practice mandatory replacement and planting of mangroves so as to maintain the required forest cover.
“The harvesting must be done in a sustainable manner and that’s something we shall follow up to ensure is adhered to. We will still keep a close watch,” Muthoni warned.
She said the lifting was majorly because it had been established beyond reasonable doubt that livelihoods had been directly affected.
Marriages had been broken as wives fled from the now broke husbands after the ban left them high and dry.
The chairperson of the Lamu Mangrove Loggers Association Abdulrahman Aboud said they had incurred losses running into millions for the one year that the ban has been in place.
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“We won’t be able to replace what we lost but we hope the lifting will enable us to resume our normal trade again so that we can make up for lost time,”
Aboud said.
Mangroves are considered an integral recipe in Lamu’s culture and heritage.
Major mangrove logging areas in Lamu include Lamu Old Town, Manda, Ndau, Kizingitini, Faza, Mkokoni, Kiwayu islands and villages on the Lamu-Somalia border including Kiunga and Ishakani.
This recent development comes less than two weeks after mangrove loggers threatened to head to court and gave the government 14 days to lift the ban.