East African Breweries has committed Sh8 million towards restoration of Mt Kenya and Aberdare forests.
The brewer's intervention is part of their environmental conservation efforts to protect water catchment areas.
Kenya's current forest cover at 7.24 per cent has led to massive degradation of water catchments, with many rivers dry up.
The government wants to double forest cover by planting over 1 million trees by 2022.
KBL through its staff-driven initiative, Kijani, in collaboration with Nature Kenya and Kenya Forest Service aims to plant over 100,000 trees in the next two years.
The brewer will engage community forest associations with over 1,200 members each.
Nature Kenya will monitor the trees for a period of two years to ensure maximum survival.
EABL group corporate director Eric Kiniti said on Tuesday reducing environmental impact is important for KBL as a business and is entrenched in their sustainability agenda.
“Environmental conservation is at the core of our business and is one of our key sustainability pillars. When we neglect our ecosystems, we not only destroy habitats for our wild and domestics animals; we make it harder for communities and businesses to operate. We therefore have to be more deliberate with our conservation and rehabilitation efforts”, he said.
This is the second time EABL is participating in rehabilitation of Mt Kenya Forest. In partnership with Nature Kenya, the company restored 100 hectares of forest by planting 100,000 indigenous trees between 2017 and 2018.
"We have planted 67,000 trees in Hombe forest block, 23,000 at Kabaru forest block, 2,000 at Naromoru and 8,000 at Gathiuru forest,” Kiniti said.
Chief conservator of forests Julius Kamau said water towers across the country have been undergoing serious degradation and called on Kenyans to support the restoration of water catchments such as Mt Kenya Forest and Aberdare forests.
“Taking action to restore Mt Kenya and Aberdare is not a choice but an obligation. They provide fresh drinking water to over two million people. Over 70 per cent of Kenya’s electricity is from hydropower, half of it generated from Tana River, which originates from these water towers. In essence, Mt. Kenya and Aberdare are a crucial source for drinking water, food, electricity and jobs for millions of Kenyans,” he said.
Nature Kenya executive director Paul Matiku said KBL's support had demonstrated that it was possible for businesses to catalyse forest restoration. Dr. Matiku urged other corporates to follow EABL's lead and make strategic commitments.
Kenya Forest Service presented EABL with an award for completing the first phase of Mt Kenya Forest restoration by planting 100,000 trees.
