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Kenyan president William Ruto announced recently he would lift a logging ban that has been in place since 2018. Ruto said the decision was overdue and was aimed at creating jobs and opening new businesses
Kenyan president William Ruto announced recently he would lift a logging ban that has been in place since 2018. Ruto said the decision was overdue and was aimed at creating jobs and opening new businesses. He said matured trees are rotting in forests while locals suffer due to lack of timber, which he said was foolishness. The decision to lift the ban on logs was because of that, he asserted, while adding that the decision would help in creating more jobs in the country.
Ruto said that his government would maintain its goal of planting 15 billion trees over the next ten years to address climate change. Ruto was speaking at a Church function recently. It did not go well with the climate activists. Greenpeace Africa said the decision could have devastating consequences for the environment. The organization said Kenyan forests are home to rare and endangered species, and millions of local people depend on these forests for their livelihoods, relying on them for food and medicine.
The organization also said that since the Kenyan government imposed the ban on logging six years ago, significant progress has been made in forest protection and combating the climate crisis. Lifting the ban will undo all our hard work, as it will open the floodgates to commercial and illegal logging solely driven by profit.
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The 2018 ban, which was put in place by the previous government, aimed to stop illegal logging and raise Kenya’s forest cover to 10%. Currently forest cover in the country stands at 8.8%, according to government statistics, while the forestry and logging industry contributed 1.6% to the Kenyan economy in 2022.
