Communities living in and around forests in Nandi County are being encouraged to grow food crops on designated restoration sites to improve livelihoods and promote the survival of newly planted trees.
Governor Stephen Sang said involving local residents in planting, protecting and nurturing trees would give them an incentive to safeguard forests while supporting household food security.
Speaking during celebration of Mazingira Day at Kimondi Forest Station, Sang said the approach would strengthen community participation in the rehabilitation of degraded forest areas.
“Let us not just plant trees; let us grow trees. You can plant trees and they dry up, but we must ensure they grow,” he said.
The Governor said residents had been given opportunities to tend seedlings and grow selected food crops, adding that the model would benefit communities while supporting the national tree-growing campaign.
Nandi County Forest Conservator John Momanyi said the programme, known as Plantation Establishment and Livelihood Improvement Scheme (PELIS) was designed to encourage communities living near forests to participate in conservation while benefiting from food production.
Momanyi said residents of Kimondi had volunteered to prepare planting sites, dig holes and plant seedlings during the celebrations.
He said 30 schools, representing the county’s sub-counties, had also been supplied with seedlings for the National Environment Day activities.
Momanyi said the county had distributed and planted thousands of seedlings in various locations, including Kimondi, Emgwen, Kapsabet and Tinderet, as part of its contribution to the national target.
He added that the Kenya Forest Service had directed village elders to receive 100 seedlings each for planting at their homes to encourage wider community participation.
The conservator said the county was also establishing seedling production sites at Kimondi and Tinderet, with support from National Youth Service personnel, to increase the supply of seedlings for forest restoration.
He said the county was awaiting completion of site preparations before expanding seedling production.
Principal Secretary for Immigration and Citizen Services Belio Kipsang present while marking National Mazingira Day said Nandi had a target of planting 171 million trees over 10 years under the national campaign to grow 15 billion trees.
He urged residents to protect planted seedlings, noting that environmental conservation was essential to sustainable development, including housing and infrastructure projects that rely on natural resources.
Kipsang said Nandi’s favourable rainfall offered an opportunity to contribute to increasing the country’s tree cover.
Meanwhile, forest-sector investors said they were supporting both timber production and tree-growing to ensure sustainable access to raw materials.
Morgan Kennedy Avugwe, a forest investor in Nandi County, said harvesting timber had created employment opportunities and supplied raw materials for carpentry and construction.
He said investors also needed to participate in tree-growing to replace harvested trees and support the long-term sustainability of the forestry sector.
“We cannot participate in cutting trees without also participating in planting,” Avugwe said, adding that his team had planted more than 1,000 trees during the celebrations.
Governor Sang called on colleges, churches, non-governmental organisations and development partners to adopt sections of forests and take responsibility for nurturing
trees to maturity.
He said partnerships between communities, government agencies and institutions would be critical to ensuring that tree-planting initiatives translated into lasting forest restoration.
The National Environment Day celebrations at Kimondi Forest Station brought together National and County Government officials, forest-sector stakeholders, students and local residents to promote environmental conservation and community participation in tree-growing.
by Geoffrey Satia
