Nakuru: The State has been petitioned to lease idle government land to private companies, women, and youth groups for tree planting. The Executive Director of Multi Touch International (MTI), Christine Wangari, stated that this initiative would support the government’s ambitious plans to plant 15 billion trees by 2032. The program aims to increase tree cover to 30 percent, thereby restoring and conserving Kenya’s 10.6 million hectares of degraded landscapes and ecosystems.
According to Kenya News Agency, Ms. Wangari emphasized the global appeal for increased tree planting, aligning with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. However, she pointed out that Kenyans are cutting down 50,000 hectares of trees annually for timber, firewood, and charcoal, or to create space for farming and construction. Ms. Wangari highlighted the significant impact of a clean environment on food security, health outcomes, affordable housing, and the growth of the manufacturing sector. She stressed the importance of improving public awareness among the youth regarding the connection between the environment and their daily lives.
Ms. Wangari urged the government to intensify civic education and public participation to mobilize Kenyans towards achieving the target of planting 15 billion trees by 2030. She noted that environmental conservation activities have the potential to create decent jobs for the youth, especially in rural areas, and increase food production. This could contribute to effectively achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1 (no poverty) and SDG 2 (zero hunger) by 2030.
The urgency for reforestation, according to Ms. Wangari, is driven by the need to restore and preserve critical water towers, ensuring water security, food security, and sustaining hydropower generation. During a press conference in Nakuru, she revealed that Kenya loses about 12,000 hectares of its 4.6 million hectares of forest land annually due to the rising demand for wood fuel and charcoal, a growing population, infrastructure expansion, and the conversion of forests into commercial farmland.
Ms. Wangari pointed out that less than 10 percent of Kenya is forested, and the deterioration of watersheds poses risks to water security, wildlife sustainability, and agriculture-linked livelihoods. Around four to five million Kenyans benefit directly from forests, which also provide unmarketed goods like biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and slower land degradation. She warned that critical watersheds are rapidly degrading due to poor land use practices, deforestation, and encroachment on riparian land.
Multi-Touch International (MTI), in collaboration with communities, volunteers, and professionals, has planted over 3.7 million seedlings of indigenous and exotic trees in riparian areas, schools, and national parks within Nakuru County. Ms. Wangari estimated that 100,000 jobs could be created through the production of high-value tree species, including diversification into species such as Prunus Africana, saddlewood, commercial bamboo, and various fruit and medicinal trees.
She added that an additional 300,000 jobs could be generated through national afforestation programs targeting gazetted forests and numerous riparian zones, including schools, parks, and wildlife reserves. The Galana Kulalu irrigation project could create another 400,000 jobs by producing over 40 billion high-value tree species, mitigating deforestation, desertification, and climate change.
Ms. Wangari affirmed that protecting forests is one of the most cost-effective ways to combat climate change, as trees absorb the main gas responsible for global warming from the atmosphere. She noted that the slow increase in forest cover is attributed to unregulated charcoal production, indigenous tree felling, overgrazing, human settlement expansion, unsustainable wood product use, and poverty despite intensive tree planting campaigns by the State, corporates, and organizations.
The environmentalist highlighted the adverse effects of climate change, exacerbating deforestation, land degradation, and biodiversity loss. The United Nations recommends a minimum of 10 percent tree cover for a country’s land surface area, while Kenya’s forest cover is estimated at about six percent. This is significantly below international standards, underscoring the need to increase tree cover.
Ms. Wangari explained that Kenya’s diminishing tree cover has led to rivers drying up, negatively impacting the country’s biodiversity and reducing its carbon sink, contributing to global warming. Approximately 107,000 hectares of forest, about 25 percent of the Mau Forest, have been destroyed over the past 20 years. The demand for agricultural expansion, human settlements, and infrastructure development continues to threaten tree cover and forests.
She urged every Kenyan of goodwill to plant at least one tree, acknowledging that planting marks the beginning of a long process until the tree matures. Deliberate efforts are needed to nurture seedlings until they stabilize and flourish. Deforestation could accelerate climate change by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and increasing soil erosion and desertification.
A United Nations study estimates that the negative effects of deforestation on Kenya’s public health, agriculture, fishing, and other industries cost the economy Sh5.8 billion annually. In addition to mitigating climate change, trees offer practical benefits for farmers, with certain varieties like grevillea improving soil quality when grown alongside staple food crops. These trees can also provide income if farmers harvest and replant them after a few years.
