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State to plant trees on 30,000
hectares
Story by MICHAEL NJUGUNA and JOSEPH KIMANI
Publication Date: 2004/06/10
Daily Nation
Some Sh20 million has been set aside to hire people to plant trees
in Government forests.
The forestry department intends to plant trees on 30,000 hectares
in 10 years.
Mr Mbugua said the department last year planted seedlings on 9,000
hectares, up from 4,000 hectares in 2002.
The chief conservator of forests, Mr David Mbugua, however, says
the cost will rise significantly after the eviction from forests
of thousands of farmers who tended trees alongside their crops.
"We shall now spend Sh27,000 to tend an hectare of tree
seedlings, up from Sh3,000 in the non-resident cultivation
programme," said Mr Mbugua.
Mr Mbugua was addressing journalists at Kiptunga forest in the Mau
range. The forest is a critical water catchment area and has
several expansive swamps, believed to be the source of several
underground rivers.
Mr Mbugua said that the Forest Bill, shot down in Parliament two
weeks ago, would have allowed communities a bigger role in
managing forests.
"It would also have enabled people bordering forests to
derive direct benefits from conservation," Mr Mbugua said.
About 67,000 hectares had been excised from the Mau forest since
the mid 1990s but the land had not yet been degazetted.
Mr Mbugua said forest guards were being trained to use guns.
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