Business Daily (Nairobi)
Victor Juma
4 November 2009
The government is counting on farmers to increase Kenya's forest cover by up to 10 per cent -- the level it was at independence.
Lined up are incentives such as loans at low interest rates and endowments to motivate farmers to grow trees on their land to mitigate the effects of decades of deforestation.
Planting the trees to achieve this level should take five years, it says.
Kenya has less than two per cent forest cover of the country's 58 million hectares.
"People who plant trees on their farms will be able to access financing from the forest conservation and management fund that was created under the Forests Act (2005)," said Mr D.K. Mbugua, director of Kenya Forest Service (KFS).
He added: "Those who plant trees on plantations for commercial purposes can obtain loans at low interest rates. On the other hand, those who just want to plant trees for the sake of conservation can get endowments," he said.
The government is also counting on possible compensation from the developed world for their role in global warming believed to have affected poor nations more.
"We expect that the Copenhagen meeting in December will result in increase in carbon trade which local farmers can take advantage of," he said.
He, however, said making local industries to pay for carbon emission was still a challenge due to lack of data on levels of pollution.
Africa, led by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, has been pushing for the pollution compensation and gave the Developed World a $67 billion demand.
The global carbon credit market is estimated to be $60 billion. The world emits over 30 billion metric tonnes of carbon annually.
The government says the turn to agro-forestry is informed by the realisation that relying on natural forests cannot boost the nation's forest cover, which has been rapidly declining.
Last year, trees on farms covered about 10 million hectares compared to one million hectares of natural closed- canopy forests.
Kenya is in the middle of an heated environment debate, fuelled by the wanton destruction of the five water towers -- including Mau Complex-- that has led to food, water, and energy crises ever witnessed.
Intruders of water catchment areas have over the years cut trees for settlement, farming, and commercial charcoal burning.
As a result, some rivers whose tributaries come from the water towers have either dried up or their water levels have dropped significantly.
Uphill task
In the recent drought, River Tana's inflows dipped to a historic low of 5 cubic metres per second.
The decline in water levels has reduced electricity generation, causing a sharp rise in charges as KenGen, the power producer, increased its thermal output.
Pastoralist communities living downstream have borne the brunt of dwindling water levels while nationally agricultural output has taken a hit, leading to high food prices and starvation.
Environmental experts say that each country should aim at a national forest cover of 10 per cent.
KFS has launched a strategic plan focused on this cover in the next five years.
"It will be an uphill task to meet the 10 per cent target since 80 per cent of the country is made of arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), "said Noah Wekesa, the minister for Forestry and Wildlife.
The minister said the government will take tree planting campaigns to the ASALs to boost conservation efforts.
Mr Mbugua said the government will use drought-resistant tree species like Acacia in ASALs.
Apart from the government, non-governmental organisations, and private companies are planting trees in their engagement with the communities.
Observers have said relying on planting only the key water towers would not achieve the globally recommended national forest cover of at least 10 per cent.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Business Daily. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
