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19,000
Hectares of Forest Lost Annually
The Nation
(Nairobi)
March 27,
2004
Posted to the web March 29, 2004
Nairobi
Kenya loses
19,000 hectares of forest every year.
And the
Environment and Natural Resources minister, Dr Newton Kulundu,
blamed the loss on corruption among forest officers.
"Forest
Department staff failed to serve as forest custodians," said
the minister yesterday. "Some went ahead and cultivated
pyrethrum in forests, which they turned into reservoirs of
unoccupied land for grabs."
Dr Kulundu said
the Government was restructuring the department and would
establish a Kenya forest service that would oversee the shifting,
from traditional forest management, to a sustainable and
participatory approach.
In a speech read
for him by assistant minister Wangari Maathai at a Nakuru workshop
for forest resource users, Dr Kulundu said the ministry was
encouraging rural communities to conserve forests.
The Government
would also consider allowing farming in forests.
The minister
said that 300 forest officers sacked early this year had been
reinstated after the Government had examined their records.
Dr Kulundu said
the department had been under funded for many years. This had
lowered staff morale and fuelled corruption.
Link : http://allafrica.com/stories/200403290202.html
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