Africa-Press – Kenya. The country needs to plant 1.5 billion trees each year to meet the 15 billion target in 10 years, Environment CS Soipan Tuya has said.
She said on Tuesday that the ministry targets to plant 500 million trees during the short rains.
“During the long rains period of April–June 2024, we will grow 1 billion seedlings to reach our target,” Tuya told journalists.
The CS said each of the 50 million Kenyans needs to grow 30 seedlings each year to meet the 15 billion target by 2032.
“In this regard, we have set a target of growing 100 million seedlings on November 13, 2023. My appeal to fellow Kenyans is that we should come out in numbers on Monday, November 13, 2023, to grow at least two seedlings and document the growing on the Jazamiti Application,” she said.
Tuya urged Kenyans to download it on their phones and document each tree they plant. She said if all Kenyans plant at least two seedlings on Monday, the Jazamiti App should document an additional 100 million seedlings.
Interior CS Kithure Kindiki declared November 13 a public holiday to enable Kenyans plant trees.
President William Ruto will preside over the National Tree Growing activity at Kiu Wetland in Makueni county on Monday.
The drive will be held concurrently with county tree growing exercises in all the counties to be presided over by Cabinet secretaries. Tuya said each CSs has been assigned at least two counties to oversee the tree planting exercise.
Tuya said Kiu Wetland was selected as the venue of the National Tree Growing activity in line with the ministry’s National Wetlands Restoration Strategy.
The strategy identified wetlands as having very high potential for ecosystem restoration including tree growing and support for livelihoods because of the all-year availability of water.
On September 11, Kenya Forest Service chief conservator of forests Alex Lemarkoko said they intend to continue raising more high-quality tree seedlings.
He said the service has received 4,680kg of assorted tree seeds from the Kenya Forestry Research Institute.
“The seeds have already been distributed to KFS tree nurseries countrywide, for production of more than 200 million seedlings for planting from the next tree planting season,” Lemarkoko said.
He said besides the tree seedlings availability at KFS tree nurseries, there are also tree seedlings available in private tree nurseries and within nurseries operated by other institutions.
“Forty-two million seedlings are currently available for planting in the current rainy season,” Lemarkoko said.
KFS is the lead agency tasked with the implementation of the government’s agenda of attaining 30 per cent tree cover by 2032, up from the current 12.13 per cent.
It protects 6.4 million acres of gazetted forests and another 420 million acres under counties.
The state needs at least Sh600 billion to enhance tree cover in the next 10 years.
Statistics from the state show that the forest cover increased from 5.9 per cent in 2018 to 8.83 per cent in 2021.
The national tree cover stands at 12.13 per cent, above the constitutional target of 10 per cent.
Results generated from the National Forest Resources Assessment 2021 show that the country has 5.2 million hecatres of national forest cover, which represents 8.83 per cent of the total area.
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