Kenyan President William Ruto lifted a five-year tree-logging freeze that boosted forest cover to a modest 8.8% in the East African nation that experiences routine drought.
(Bloomberg) — Kenyan President William Ruto lifted a five-year tree-logging freeze that boosted forest cover to a modest 8.8% in the East African nation that experiences routine drought.
Removing the moratorium will create employment and revive the wood products industry, Ruto said Sunday. Activists say the government has little capacity to monitor sustainable harvesting of trees and expect environmental degradation on resumption of logging.
“That is really like licensing the destruction of forests,” said environmental activist James Wakibia.
Kenya targets to plant 15 billion trees over the next seven years to restore 10.6 million hectares (26.2 million acres) of degraded land and enlarge forest cover to 30%. This is after the region was hit by its worst drought in four decades last year.
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“You’ll see temperature effects on decreasing rainfall,” said Namenya Daniel Naburi, a Nairobi-based environmental consultant. Illegal logging will increase and biodiversity will shrink, he said.
The freeze since 2018 grew national forest cover to 8.8% from 7.13%, according to the statistics agency. Trees in government forests increased by 5% during the five years.
While there’s a risk of over-logging, removal of the restrictions implies the government had met its objectives, said Godwin Sakwa, an environment consultant for development lenders. “If it is done properly, it’s nothing really bad,” he said.
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