PRESIDENT Kibaki yesterday came face to face with realities of deforestation while presiding over the launch of national tree planting season in Kitui county. The President, who visited the Green Africa Foundation Research at Isaangwa village on the outskirts of Kitui town was taken through shocking statistics on tree felling and logging which unless reversed could render conservation efforts nugatory.
The President was informed by the Green Africa Foundation chairman Dr Isaac Kalua that the country's tree cover was depleting at an incredible rate of a whooping 5.6 million trees daily through charcoal burning, timber harvesting and firewood for schools. Kalua told the President that all the country's primary and secondary schools are depending on fire wood and that the current conservation efforts are not enough to replenish what is being lost daily.
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