Enforce logging ban

Environment Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale’s vow to end illegal logging and other activities undermining the country’s conservation efforts is a welcome development. His stern warning to those involved should be followed by comprehensive measures to put an end to the widespread mess.

His intervention may just have been prompted by the adverse effects following President William Ruto’s lifting in July last year of a six-year ban on logging. The green light by the President had raised serious concern among environmentalists.

Indeed, the President has this year stepped up the campaign to increase the country’s forest cover from just below 10 per cent, which is recommended by the United Nations. This is also the minimum target set by the 2010 Constitution. The country’s forest cover stood at 8.8 per cent in 2021. 

Ravaging forest resources

The President has been leading a countrywide drive by his government that has involved the Cabinet Secretaries in an ambitious programme to plant 15 billion trees and help bring the national forest cover to 30 per cent in the next 10 years.

Former Defence CS Duale, who was shifted to the Environment portfolio in the recent Cabinet reshuffle, also wants strict vetting of the commercial forest stock buyers. Illegal logging, encroachment, and overexploitation of forest resources have severely undermined conservation efforts, threatening not only the environment, but also the country’s future. 

The CS plans to oversee the restoration of 10.6 million hectares of degraded lands to productivity. The allocation of commercial forest stocks across the 150,000 hectares to private buyers has also fuelled corruption and malpractices in the sector.

Besides logging, charcoal burning and encroachment have also exerted undue pressure, ravaging forest resources. The protection of the environment is critical and, therefore, not negotiable.