The British Army Training Unit in Kenya (Batuk) joined Kenya Defence Forces officer, National and County Government officials, conservationists, community and students in planting some 200,000 trees in Laikipia County on Saturday to mark Mazingira day.
This was part of the Presidential Green Challenge of growing 5.1milliom trees within an hour across 31 weather favoured counties.
The exercise took place simultaneously across four sites namely the KDF Nanyuki Base, Lombere Dam, NYS Kirimon and Lariak Forest, with each site tasked to plant 50,000 trees, marking the climax of Mazingira Week for the year.
This year’s Mazingira theme is “Our Environment, Our Responsibility: Collective Action for Tree Growing and Environmental Stewardship”.
Local leaders, led by Laikipia Deputy Governor Reuben Kamuri and County Commissioner Duncan Muyesu called on all stakeholders to ensure the survival of the trees noting that participating in the planting exercise would be an exercise in futility if individuals do not dedicate time and efforts to grow them to maturity.
They also emphasized the need to plant fruit trees as a strategy to boost nutrition and generate income.
Chief guest during the event, Boru Hassan from the State Department of Tourism described Laikipia County as a one of the regions of immense environmental importance and a hotbed of conservation and tourism.
“I would like to particularly recognize Laikipia County as a critical ecological zone for conservation.
Laikipia is not only a landscape of great beauty, but also one of immense environmental importance. It is a hotbed of conservation and tourism, blessed with a beautiful blend of ecosystems, including national protected areas and community conservancies,” said Hassan.
In Lariak Forest, the exercise was led by Principal Secretary for Defence Patrick Mariru who warned that prolonged dry spells and changing weather patterns were threatening livelihoods and contributing to conflicts over scarce natural resources.
Mariru noted that competition for pasture and water was increasingly bringing pastoralist and farming communities into conflict, urging Kenyans to take environmental conservation seriously.
He cited forest fires experienced in parts of Europe and other countries as evidence of the growing global environmental crisis, adding that tree planting was among the interventions needed to restore degraded ecosystems and mitigate climate change.
by Muturi Mwangi
