A portion of City Park forest was on Sunday named UNEP corner as part of celebrations to mark 50 years since UNEP was established.
During the event, 193 indigenous trees were planted, representing all the UN member states.
Environment CS Keriako Tobiko led the tree planting exercise where his PS Chris Kiptoo and Kenya Forest Service chief conservator Julius Kamau was present.
Several Environment ministers and Ambassadors attended the event.
The event comes even as Kenya prepares to host the fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly, to be held at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi from February 28 to March 2.
UN Environment Assembly is the highest-level meeting on the state of the environment.
It will be under the theme “Strengthening Actions for Nature to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”.
Immediately after UNEA-5.2, the assembly will hold a special session on March 3 - 4, devoted to commemorating UNEP's anniversary
UNEP was established in 1972.
During the assembly, the challenges facing the environment such as climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution will take the center stage.
The portion that was named UNEP corner had been grabbed but was recovered back in 2019.
The global environmental body will take care of the section in conjunction with Kenya Forest Service and City Park Forest Association once they sign an MoU.
Tobiko said the move will protect the green space for prosperity.
PS Kiptoo said Kenya has been restoring green spaces in the city and one of them is City park
Kamau said the government has put a lot of effort into restoring green spaces.
City Park was wrestled from the management of Nairobi county and its management was placed under KFS in June 2020.
“We are committed to restoring it to the former glory,” Kamau said.
He said an assessment done by the National Museums of Kenya at the park showed, it had about 998 tree and plant species.
At the park, there are monkeys, the secret slavery, ticked honeybees and butterflies with more than 100 species of birds.
Kamau said the park has a botanical garden that is a wonderful place to see, together with key historical sites that are of great significance to the country.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
