Nairobi — Conservationists have raised a red flag following a decision by President William Ruto to lift a six-year ban on logging.

Led by Dr Kalua Green of the Green Thinking Action Party (GTAP), the Friends of the Environment said the action will lead to massive destruction of the forests.

"We respectfully call upon President William Ruto to reconsider his decision," Dr Green said at a news conference, following the weekend announcement.

He said the move to lift the ban risks eroding all the gains Kenya has made on afforestation.

"We need to protect the environment and that is why we are saying this decision is not right," he said.

Dr Kalua said there is need for the government to establish an entity for overseeing legal logging because currently Kenya Forest Service manages, protects and sells forest resources, which goes against the tenets of accountability.

In lifting the ban, President Ruto said the move was "long overdue" and was aimed at creating jobs and opening up sectors of the economy that rely on forest products.

"We can't have mature trees rotting in forests while locals suffer due to lack of timber. That's foolishness," he said in Molo.

"This is why we have decided to open up the forest and harvest timber so that we can create jobs for our youth and open up business."

Ruto, who has positioned himself at the forefront of African efforts to combat climate change, said the government would push ahead with plans to plant 15 billion trees over 10 years.

But environmentalists have warned that the action is likely to delight saw millers and timber merchants who protested that it had caused major job losses.

The moratorium was imposed by the previous government in February 2018 in public and community forests with the aim of stamping out rampant illegal logging and increasing the nation's forest cover to 10 percent.

Forestry and logging contributed 1.6 percent to Kenya's economy last year, according to government statistics which also said the total forest cover was 8.8 percent in 2022.