- Kenya aims to increase tree cover from 7% to 10% by the end of this year. According to the most recent government estimates, Kenya loses about 12,000 of its 4.6 million hectares of forest land each year.
While most countries fight to keep farmers out of their forests, Kenya taps small-scale farming on forest land to preserve its forests. Kenya’s national scheme designed to curb illegal logging by allowing farmers to grow crops in forests giving them an alternative source of income has started yielding dividends.
According to Kenyan Forest authorities, the initiative has cut down illegal logging. The presence of farmers in the forests drive off illegal loggers while it offers farmers opportunities to make extra income. The farmers living near protected forests are given forest land on lease where they cultivate potatoes, Kale, etc. In return, they have to plant and raise the trees growing among their crops. For a nominal amount of 500 shillings a year – a tenth of what it usually costs to lease farmland – farmers get a piece of forest land to use for growing crops, keeping bees or dairy animals, and other agricultural activities. When they get fertile forest land they will not collaborate with the illegal loggers and risk getting thrown out of the land. Under the deal, KFS supplies seedlings to farmers, mainly exotic fast-growing species such as cypress and pine, to raise trees.
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Kenya aims to increase tree cover from 7% to 10% by the end of this year. According to the most recent government estimates, Kenya loses about 12,000 of its 4.6 million hectares of forest land each year. In its latest budget, announced on April 7, the government has allocated 10 billion Kenyan shillings ($87 million) for forest conservation over the next financial year.
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