Government’s efforts to increase the country’s tree cover got a major boost on Monday after inmates rallied towards the clarion call by President William Ruto to raise the tree cover to 30 percent by 2032.
This is after inmates from Kaloleni GK Prison planted a total of 1,300 tree seedlings.
Speaking at the tree planting ceremony, the Kaloleni Superintendent of GK Prison Paul Kaburu said that the institution plans on planting 10,000 trees.
Kaburu in addition said that they have been running a program to sensitize the inmates on why greening the nation is important as well as effects of climate change.
To further champion for their greening cause, the Kaloleni Prison intends to introduce a tree nursery with a capacity of 1 million seedlings. They will use the seedlings to green the prison and donate the surplus to other institutions and the community.
“We want prisons to play a key role not only in rehabilitation of inmates but also climate rehabilitation and reformation through tree planting in schools, colleges, offices and community at large,” said Kaburu.
During the National Tree Growing day on November 13th, the Environment CS Soipan Tuya said each of the 50 million Kenyans needs to grow 30 seedlings each year to meet the 15 billion target by 2032.
“In this regard, we have set a target of growing 100 million seedlings on November 13, 2023. My appeal to fellow Kenyans is that we should come out in numbers on Monday, November 13, 2023, to grow at least two seedlings and document the growing on the Jazamiti Application,” she said.
Tuya urged Kenyans to download it on their phones and document each tree they plant. She said if all Kenyans plant at least two seedlings on Monday, the Jazamiti App should document an additional 100 million seedlings.
The state plans to grow 15 billion trees in the next 10 years at a cost of Ksh 600 billion.
This means that each year, the budget is approximately Ksh 60 billion.
The 15 billion tree campaign translates to 30 trees per Kenyan per year, over the next 10 years.
The state hopes that by 2032, the country’s tree cover will have hit 30 per cent, up from the current 12.13 per cent.
The forest cover increased from 5.9 per cent in 2018 to 8.83 per cent in 2021, while the national tree cover stands at 12.13 per cent above the constitutional target of 10 per cent.
Results generated from the National Forest Resources Assessment 2021, show that the country has 5,226,191.79ha of national forest cover, which represents 8.83 per cent of the total area.
