Many saw millers are complaining the six-year ban on logging has pushed them into abject poverty, while others have fallen into depression.
They say their investments have either been auctioned or lying idle.
In 2018, the government imposed a ban on logging in all public and community forests in an unprecedented push to reform the sector, rehabilitate degraded land and increase tree cover.
Logging was indiscriminate, charcoal burning was widespread and water towers were damaged.
Millers termed the ban ‘insensitive and politically motivated', leaving thousands of people jobless.
The initial 90-day ban on logging was imposed on February 24, 2018.
It was later extended to November 24.
The ban was finally lifted until July 2, 2023.
Following the ban, most sawmills across the country stopped operating.
It has also affected the quality of timber as some management practices known as silviculture, that is, pruning and thinning, were never applied. Pruning and thinning ensure the trees grow straight and are not bent and unusable by saw millers.
Public Forest Plantations cover 370,660 acres (150,000ha) of pine, cypress and eucalyptus. They make up six per cent of Kenya’s 615 million acres (62.49 million hectares) of gazetted forests under the Kenya Forest Service.
Immediately the ban was lifted, the state authorised the harvesting of 12,355 acres (5,000ha).
Some saw millers moved to court, challenging how the plantations were allocated.
The courts, however, approved harvesting of 12,000 acres expected to fetch the state Sh8 billion.
Losses
On August 1 last year, Environment CS Soipan Tuya said an inventory by a multi-agency task force between 2020 and 2022 found 26,000ha (64,247 acres) of plantations were either matured or over-matured.
Jotham Mbagaya, a saw miller in Malaba, said getting trees from private farms is hectic and costly.
He said trees in plantations monitored by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) are of good quality as they are managed well.
“The community also benefits from the Plantation Establishment and Livelihood Improvement Scheme (Pelis) once we are allowed to harvest plantations,” Mbagaya said.
Pelis is a system whereby KFS allows forest-adjacent communities, through community forest associations, the right to cultivate agricultural crops during the early stages of forest plantation.
Cultivation is often allowed for three to four years until the tree canopy closes. The Pelis scheme is meant to improve the economic gains of participating farmers while ensuring the plantations are well managed.
“The moratorium gave us a lot of challenges. I used to have 20 workers, but they had to stop coming as we did not have timber,” he said.
KFS chief conservator Alex Lemarkoko said arrangements have been made to harvest the 5,000ha (12,355 acres).
He said the country has a wood supply capacity of 31.4 million cubic metres against the national demand of 57.6 million cubic metres, leaving a deficit of 26.2 million cubic metres.
“As the economy grows, the deficit will increase,” Lemarkoko said.
Lack of capital
He said the 5,000 hectares of mature and over-mature plantations will produce 2.049 million cubic metres.
Lemarkoko said the market may not be able to absorb the 5,000 hectares allowed due to the five-year disuse of equipment and lack of capital.
Kakamega County Timber Manufacturers Association chairman Joseph Songol said he has about 32 registered saw millers.
Songol said they have three nurseries to replenish trees that saw millers harvest.
He said the moratorium had devastating effects on his members.
“Most saw millers had approached banks for loans to purchase saw milling equipment. When the moratorium was imposed, most of their equipment, such as tractors, were taken by banks. Bank interest soared, meaning that millers had to sell their properties to settle loans,” Songol said.
Charles Gichuki, a saw miller in Nyeri, said sourcing materials from private farms comes with a number of challenges.
“We lose a lot of revenue buying timber from other countries, yet we have the capacity to process it locally, and there is nothing big that the neighbours are doing. They are just managing forests the way it is being done in Kenya,” he said.
Gichuki said sourcing materials from neighbouring countries such as Uganda and Tanzania provides very poor quality timber compared to Kenya. Prices are higher because they are imported.
Outcry
He said there has been an outcry by customers as substandard products are having negative impacts on the industry.
Gichuki said before the moratorium, he used to employ more than 150 people, who were laid off during the moratorium. They looked for work in other countries.
He said, however, saw millers again have been employing workers after the state announced that 5,000ha of plantations would be harvested.
Community Forest Associations are also crying foul as the moratorium barred them from accessing forests for their user rights.
KFS has listed CFAs as key elements in forest conservation and management because they are formed by communities that live adjacent to forests.
The communities use forest land sustainably to improve their livelihoods, easing pressure on the forest areas.
KFS has helped form, restructure, and register CFAs countrywide in accordance with the Registrar of Societies.
CFAs are supposed to sign the Participatory Forest Management Plan and Forest Management Agreement, according to the Forest Conservation and Management Act, 2016.
User rights
Once CFAs sign agreements with the KFS, they get user rights.
Some user rights include the collection of medicinal herbs, the harvesting of honey, the collection of dead fuel wood and grass harvesting.
Others are ecotourism, recreational activities and plantation establishments.
