Nairobi — The Government has been urged to deny wood carvers licences to cut indigenous trees.

Mr Z K Nderu, the chairman of the Environment Trust of Kenya, said the carvers were major destroyers of forests.

Speaking in Mombasa, Nderu said indigenous trees in the Coast Province - including the neem tree - were threatened with destruction owing to indiscriminate harvesting by the carvers.

Nderu was reacting to calls by some wood carvers who urged the Co-operatives Minister, Mr Njeru Ndwiga, to help them acquire permits to harvest indigenous trees in forests.

The carvers had complained that the Government ban was hurting their business.

The Malindi Handicraft Co-operative Society chairman, Mr Joseph Kimulu, had argued that their curio-making business would collapse unless the Government issued them with the permits.

Yesterday, Nderu strongly opposed the relaxation of the ban.

"Wood carvers are to blame for the destruction of forests... The Government should not give in to their pleas," he said.

He claimed that wood carvers were now using street children to put litter on the base of trees and set them on fire, causing the trees to fall down. They then come along to collect the wood.

Nderu suggested that carvers should use clay to make curios.

"For the sake of saving our forests, the wood carvers should turn to the use of clay in making handicrafts.

"This would put an end to their clash with environmentalists," he said.