- Kamau who is leaving the organisation after serving four years said the initial KFS plan was to have 10 per cent tree cover by 2030.
- Kamau's other achievements at KFS has been the implementation of the Service Human Resource structure.
Image: HANDOUT
The Chief Conservator of Forests Julius Kamau has said he is happy the country has achieved 12.3 per cent tree cover in the last four years.
Tree cover is calculated as the average of the total number of individual trees in the country.
Kamau who, is leaving the organisation after serving four years, said the initial KFS plan was to have 10 per cent tree cover by 2030.
However, he said when he took over, the plan was revised and KFS started working on having the 10 per cent tree cover be achieved by 2022.
“I'm a happy man since the statistics show that we now have 12.13 per cent tree cover. We surpassed the 10 per cent milestone,” he said.
He said when he took over in 2018, Kenya's forest cover was 5.9 per cent.
This is the average total area covered by forests in the country.
After rehabilitation of forests and reclamation of grabbed forest land across the country, Kenya now has an 8.83 per cent forest cover.
Kamau said when he took over, a total of 55,000 hectares of forest land had been encroached on.
Of this, KFS under his leadership has been able to reclaim a total of 38,000 hectares and planted trees on 28,000 hectares.
In the Maasai Mau, he said a total of 14,400 hectares was encroached on.
Kirisia in Samburu saw 30,000 hectares and Mt Elgon 10,000 hectares of forest land encroached on.
Kamau called on individual Kenyans to plant trees saying the tree component must be part of the farm.
He said trees should be planted at a subsistence level because they will also have a positive impact on the future generations.
“A farmer should plant a tree for fruits, firewood, to provide them with shade and as a water catchment resource. The farmer with a tree in his farm is more resilient to the effects of climate change,” he said.
Kamau called on owners of huge tracks of land to have 30 per cent of the land under trees.
He added that KFS vision is to see 30 per cent tree cover in the country by 2032.
Kamau's other achievements at KFS has been the implementation of the Service Human Resource structure.
“Initially, there was no career progression at KFS. With the HR instruments in place, we have been able to promote our staff, hire 215 more, we are recruiting 2000 forest rangers and 300 forest officers,” he said.
He added that he was also able to improve governance, curb corruption, unethical behaviour, put in place an anti-corruption policy, whistle blower policy and curb revenue loss.
Kamau thanked the KFS Board which he said unanimously agreed that he serves a second term.
“I wrote to the Board last month and told them I would like to leave the service and pursue other interests. I have given my country and KFS the best,” he said.
The CCF will proceed on leave starting Monday, February 26.