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Fresh hope
for revised forests Bill
Story by NATION Correspondent
Publication Date: 07/07/2005
The controversial forests Bill has
been revised and will be tabled in Parliament for debate next
week.
Environment minister Kalonzo
Musyoka said yesterday that differences in the ruling coalition
had been ironed out to allow republication.
Feuding in Narc saw the Government
Bill defeated when it was introduced in October, but the minister
said most MPs had promised to back it when it is retabled on
Thursday.
"The revised version addresses
issues raised when MPs first rejected it," he said.
The Bill has been redrafted to
incorporate local community concerns about forests, he said.
The Forest Bill 2004 was tabled by
the Environment minister at the time, Dr Newton Kulundu, and after
its defeat, it would be brought back to the House only after six
months.
Yesterday, however, Mr Musyoka said
it now seeks to allow people living within degraded environments
to take part in their rehabilitation.
Besides the involvement of the
local communities in rehabilitation and giving them access to
forest products, issues included in the amended Bill comprise the shamba
system in which people are allowed to grow crops in the forests as
they protect them, the establishment of the Kenya Forest Service
and involving Parliament in excisions.
LDP backbenchers and some Ford
Kenya MPs had joined hands with Kanu in rejecting the Bill last
year.
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=52603
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