The Kenya Forest Service (KFS) in conjunction with the Ministry of Trade, Investments and Industry and the local community is on course in rehabilitating 500 hectares of degraded Irangi Forest in Embu County.
The forest measures 15,501 hectares and is home to a diverse species of wild animals including elephants, buffaloes, colobus monkeys, dik-diks and various bird species like hornbills and pigeons.
County Forest Conservator Miriam Kamau said they have so far managed to rehabilitate 400 hectares since the launch of The National Tree Growing Restoration Campaign on December 21, 2022.
Through the campaign, the Government projects to grow 15 billion trees by 2032 as part of addressing issues of climate change and restoring degraded lands.
“We are remaining with 100 hectares as we also continue to follow up on the areas we have rehabilitated to ensure the seedlings grow to maturity,” Kamau said.
Speaking on Friday while accompanying staff of the Ministry in their monthly exercise of planting trees within the forest, Kamau attributed degradation to human activity, destruction of trees by wild animals such as elephants and buffaloes and those that have died after completing their life cycle.
She underscored the critical role the Ministry has played in the restoration drive of the forest by allocating resources toward the initiative including purchase of seedlings.
“We could not have done this alone given our lean budget and the support from the Ministry has come handy in ensuring the forest is rehabilitated,” she said.
State Department for Trade Undersecretary, Clement Ochola, who led the team in the exercise on Friday, said they are on course in meeting their target this year of planting 100,000 trees in the forest
Ochola reported that they had so far managed to plant 40,000 trees and was optimistic that by the end of the year, they would have met the set target.
“Our target as a department is to do one million trees by 2032 which we are hopeful will go a long way in attainment of the national target,” he said.
He noted that they have also been assigned another site in Narok County whose rehabilitation was also progressing well.
By Samuel Waititu
