The Ministry of Environment, Climate change and Forestry is carrying out a pilot programme on ‘Model Villages’ to fast-track the achievement of the 15 billion trees target by the year 2032.
The Ministry’s Cabinet Secretary (CS), Dr. Deborah Barasa, said this was the way to go in achieving and exceeding the 15 billion mark as well as the 30 percent tree cover.
The CS said this in a speech read on her behalf by the Director of Economic Planning at the State Department for Forestry, Mr. Lawrence Muthamia, during the launch of Kiamweri Model village in Meru County. The launch was held at Mukaragatine Primary School.
“The 15 billion Tree Growing Programme launched as a Presidential Flagship Project, is now being translated into tangible action here in Meru County, with Kiamweri Model Village leading the way.
I wish to commend the leadership and the people of Kiamweri for taking ownership of this national agenda and special recognition goes to Mr. Lawrence Mwiti Muthamia, Director of Economic Planning at the State Department for Forestry, who has been pivotal in the strategic planning and coordination of this initiative across Meru County,” said Dr. Barasa.
Under his stewardship, she added, 30 schools have been selected in Meru County as sites for agroforestry-based tree planting, and that the pilot will be replicated in four other counties, including Turkana, Kitui, Marsabit, and Kakamega, before national scaling.
“This represents the Whole-of-Government and Whole-of-Society approach that is central to the success of the 15 billion Tree Campaign,” said Dr. Barasa.
She underscored the importance of tree growing, terming it as a multiplier of value, including their contributions to improved Education, Nutrition and Food Security, Income generation, Carbon credit markets, Cultural and religious enrichment, Ecosystem services as well as Tourism and green heritage.
“In planting trees, we invest in the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), we support Vision 2030’s Fourth Medium-Term Plan (MTP IV), and we also uphold our regional and international commitments, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the AFR100, and the Bonn Challenge,” said Dr. Barasa.
She added, “To our schools, teachers, and students, you are the heart of this movement. Let each learner grow with the tree they plant today, nurturing it as they grow in wisdom, knowledge, and service to the country.”
In his remarks, Mr. Muthamia noted that the 2032 target could not be realised without a well-defined strategy and this was the reason for coming up with the model villages concept, which will involve people on the ground.
“We have analysed and concluded that the best teams to involve are the schools, communities, and people living along forested areas, as they form the buffer zones protecting our already existing forests,” said Mr. Muthamia.
He said after the piloting, they will have nationwide coverage so that by the end of the day, they will be in a position to assess the challenges, gaps, and lessons learnt from the implementations before scaling it to the entire country.
“We want to partner with schoolchildren as they are the centre of the families and they go down to the community, and when they grow knowing the importance of trees, it gets very well into the community and this is our target,” said Mr. Muthamia.
He also noted that they will be establishing woodlots in targeted schools where they will be engaging with teachers, County Government Departments as well as schools’ management boards.
Meru County Chief Forest Conservator Wellington Ndaka said the programme is vital in contributing to the achievement of their target, which they are very keen on.
So far, he added, Meru County has achieved a 12.9 percent forest cover against the target of 30 percent and 29.6 percent of trees grown outside the gazetted forest.
“We have also managed to plant 34,844,117 million trees against a target of 37 million, meaning that we are only off by 3,000,000 trees, which we will soon manage since we have similar events taking place in other parts of the county,” said Mr. Ndaka.
He said as a county they are heeding President William Ruto’s directive and will hit and exceed the target before the given time.
He also said that planting trees in the county is currently a routine exercise and 30 percent of planted trees, including those in their nurseries, are fruit trees, as they are important in terms of climate mitigation and resilience as well as their interventions in issues of nutrition and generation of income.
“We are also doing landscape and agro-forest restoration as well as dry-land forestry, considering that 60 percent of Meru is dry,” said Mr. Ndaka.
He called on the Kiamweri model village to count on them as worthy partners, promising their support so long as they sustain the trees given to them.
By Dickson Mwiti
