Nairobi — The Kenya Wildlife Service has been directed to revoke a 20-year-old permit it granted to a trader for the cutting of an endangered medicinal tree.

It should also stop any further exploitation of the prunas africana tree used in manufacturing medicine, Environment minister Newton Kulundu said yesterday.

The minister accused the KWS of abusing its authority as the custodian of the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

He said although the Government had listed the plant under its endangered species, Kenya had been providing 60 per cent of the world's supply estimated at Sh28.1 billion per year.

He said Mr Jonathan Leakey had been mentioned as having been unprocedurally granted the permit to harvest the tree.

The indigenous tree, found in Baringo, Kakamega and Samburu districts, is used in manufacturing drugs for prostate cancer.

The minister was speaking to journalists at Gigiri, Nairobi, after receiving an Indian delegation led by High Commissioner Surendra Kumar and Environment minister T. R. Baalu, who are attending the 15th meeting of Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

Dr Kulundu and Mr Baalu discussed ways in which Kenya could emulate the Indian law on biodiversity and exchange wildlife.

Under the deal, India would donate to Kenya blue bulls (a family of large antelopes) in exchange for tigers.

Dr Kulundu asked the Indian Government to help Kenya with satellite technology for monitoring forests.

India has 23 per cent forest cover while Kenya has 1.7 per cent, which it plans to raise to 8 per cent in five years.

China, Jamaica, Fiji and Senegal won awards for the world's outstanding national units in the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances.

The awards given out every three years were organised by the United Nations Environment Programme under the Multilateral Fund Secretariat.

The ozone layer, which shields the earth from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation, has been thinning for years because of dangerous chemicals.

This deplete ozone layer is likely to result in higher skin cancers, global warming, as well as loss of immunity to diseases.

The Montreal Protocol requires signatory countries to phase out the use of some 95 chemicals believed to damage the ozone layer.

Vice-President Moody Awori said developing countries lacked the technology for safely disposing of waste containing substances that harm the ozone layer.

He said waster disposal was one of the major challenges poor countries faced as they sought alternatives to the harmful chemicals.

He was welcoming delegates at the conference which ends today.

Mr Shafqat Kakakhel, the UNEP deputy director, told delegates that date on the production and consumption of the chemicals that harm the ozone layer had decreased by up to 90 per cent, thanks to Montreal Protocol compliance.

He, however, sounded caution that the layer would remain vulnerable in the next decade even with full implementation of the multilateral treaty.

Mr Habeeb Farook, the President of the Bureau of the 14th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, said 11 countries around the world were yet to join international efforts to protect the ozone layer.

He said: "Efforts to get these states to ratify the ozone agreements must be sustained as there is no single state in the world which does not either produce or consume ozone depleting substances."