Interior principal secretary Raymond Omollo and Governor Mohamud Ali on Monday led a tree planting exercise in Hula Hula, Marsabit county.
The national tree planting exercise spearheaded by President William Ruto, aims to plant 150 million trees across the country.
The residents were urged to take personal initiatives of growing and nurturing trees to protect forest cover.
Speaking during the exercise, the principal secretary Interior rallied residents to plant more trees during this rainy season.
"The national government is engaging county government and all stakeholders in the protection of the environment from further destruction," he said.
"Tree planting drives are an effort to preserve and protect forest's cover and environment."
Marsabit County with ecosystems namely Hurri Hills, Mt Kulal and Marsabit forest has 2.06 per cent forest cover.
He said the national tree planting exercise is not only about the planting of trees but focusing on taking good care of them to maturity.
He encouraged them to plant fruit trees at their homesteads saying such trees are not only beautify their farms but also used for food.
"Fruit trees are a source of income and can be able to reduce poverty and hunger," he said
He called on members of the public to participate in nurturing the planted trees to ensure long-term benefits to the environment.
"We are planting trees as part of our proactive efforts towards environment conservation. We discouraged residents around the forest from disengaging the activities that destroyed the forest," he said
Omollo assured residents of the operationalisation of administrative units within the county and asked Marsabit leaders to speak in one voice for the benefit of their communities.
The PS directed chiefs to spearhead the tree planting activities in their locality and encouraged residents to acquire the tree seedlings from their nearest chief's office.
"Chiefs in collaboration with county government to educate the community on importance of tree planting and distribute trees," he said
Marsabit County Governor Mohamud Ali said the county government will take the lead in ensuring that forests in the county are well conserved.
"Tree planting exercise should be embraced by all because climate change affects everyone. Let everybody support the idea of planting trees to achieve the goal of reforestation," he said
The governor maintained that the future generation can be saved only by planting trees to address the negative impact of climate change.
"I urged everybody to provide a solution to the environmental problem through tree planting," he said
He said climate change remains a threat to humanity, adding that failure to act now may lead to the possible extinction of some species of animals.
He emphasized the importance of engaging the community in forest conservation, protection and management.
He urged residents to take the opportunity of the onset of rains to plant trees to contribute to climate change mitigation.
He said tree planting plays an important role in addressing the impacts of climate change and mitigation effects of climate change.
"Tree planting improves the environment and reduces the devastating impacts of climate change," said Governor Ali.
He said his administration will spare no efforts in environmental conservation measures.
While encouraging residents to plant trees to boost forest cover, the governor termed deforestation as one of the causes of global warming and called for aggressive tree planting.
He also urged young people to cultivate the habit of planting trees to protect the environment and encouraged residents to plant fruit trees to boost their income as well as nutrition, promising the county's support in afforestation efforts.
Deputy Governor Solomon Gubo said the only way to salvage the forest cover from wanton degradation is by cultivating the habits of tree planting and nurturing it.
He warned charcoal burners whom he blamed for environmental degradation in the county that their illegal human activity has contributed towards the decreased forest cover.
He said the climate change was largely contributed by the destruction of forests and failure to plant trees.
The deputy governor challenged residents to be responsive to environmental protection and to fight acts of deforestation.
He lauded the president's directive to plant a total of 15 billion trees in the country in ten years.
