NAIROBI, Dec 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Kenyan President William Ruto is expected to launch the National Tree Growing and Land Restoration Campaign on Tuesday as part of his administrations climate action.
The campaign which will be unveiled during a ceremony to be held at the Ngong Hills Forest is part of the government ambitious programme which is aimed at managing, conserving and expanding forests sustainably towards attaining a minimum 30 per cent forest cover nationally by 2032.
“The Government plans to restore 10.6 million hectares of degraded landscapes for improved biodiversity and climate change mitigation and adaptation,” a flyer for the event says.
A joint statement by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the Ministry of Energy restated the government’s commitment to achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030 as a commitment to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
“The government has committed to reduce greenhouse gases through the forest sector by 50 percent by 2030, as part of its National Determined Contribution (NDC) to climate change,” the statement read.
President Ruto in October announced a plan to grow five billion new trees as part of his climate change mitigation agenda.
To achieve the goal, the Head of State asked every Kenyan, children included, to work towards growing 100 trees each.
He reiterated his government’s commitment to scaling up the country’s forest cover which surpassed the 10 per cent threshold set out in the Constitution after the National Forest Resources Assessment Report 2021 recorded the national forest cover at 12 per cent.
The country however missed a target of 15 per cent national forest cover set by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration. — NNN-AGENCIES
