Climate change and the plan to achieve 10% forest cover
PS for the Department of Environment and Forestry Dr Chris Kiptoo developed a passion for matters to do with environment from childhood and started conservation activities within his North Rift community. He spoke to our reporter Mathews Ndanyi on the national plan to achieve 10 per cent forest cover, climate change and his vision for a greener Kenya.
How did you progress from being a boy conservationist and a leader in school conservation activities?
After university, I saw high degradation of Kessup and Kaptagat forests next to my rural home. Water catchment areas were fast being destroyed due to increasing population. I led my community to reclaim the forests, which were key water catchment areas. Even before I became PS for Environment, I was active in community development, especially involving Kaptagat Forest.
What are some of your initiatives?
First, it was important to sensitise people because they depend on the environment and the forests for grazing, beekeeping, firewood, traditional medicine, water abstraction and other benefits.
I didn’t want two key water projects I had championed to become white elephants due to inadequate water. They were the Sabor-Iten-Tambach Water Project and the Lower Sabor Irrigation Project. It was an extension of Chepkosom-Kisonei Water and Irrigation Dam Project launched with the support of the former prime minister while I worked in his office.
In 2017, I started annual activities to promote tree planting in the Kaptagat forest and this continued when I became PS in 2020. We have stepped up conserving the forest with full community involvement.
The national government already had a strategy to achieve 10 per cent tree cover and with our CS we moved to adopt Kaptagat and the neighbourhood as part of the national plan. We have since done four editions of the programme to conserve the forest, planting more than 80,000 indigenous seedlings.
We have rehabilitated 516 degraded acres and distributed 12,000 avocados to farmers near the forest.
More than 90 per cent of the trees we planted have survived and most farmers have engaged in more agroforestry; most are farming avocados. We moved on well with the community until the decision to gazette the Elgeyo Hills Ecosystem as a water tower, including Kaptagat forest.
We educated residents on user rights for Community Forest Associations under the Forestry and Management Act. We addressed perennial governance challenges of CFAs by through fresh elections for the leadership of Sabor, Penon, Kessup, Kaptagat and Kipkabu CFAs.
Now there is better understanding and support within the community. We're moving to a fifth tree-planting in Kaptagat Forest in June.
How can Kenya achieve 10 per cent tree cover?
We need to plant more than two billion seedlings by next year to take us from 7.2 per cent nationally. Some counties like Elgeyo Marakwet have a higher tree cover of 37.5 per cent, although we find much of the forests are degraded and must be restored.
We are checking nationally. Nyeri has the highest forest cover at 38 per cent but others are alarmingly low as in Nyanza where counties like Siaya have 0.42 per cent cover, Kisumu 0.46 per cent, Migori 0.64 per cent and Busia one per cent.
From scientific study, we know if we plant two billion seedlings and achieve 90 per cent growth, we will get to 10 per cent.
What strategies are you using?
We are involving all governors, county commissioners, communities, civil society groups and other private sector players. Implementation committees are working with all the stakeholders. Our target is more than 43 million seedlings planted per county, though pressure on land varies depending on historical issues of settlements.
We have an integrated programme and master plans to guide the process in all counties. We focus on both commercial forests for timber, indigenous trees and then water towers. Donors support us through integrated master plans such as the one for restoration and rehabilitation of Elgeyo Hills and Cheranganyi water towers, as well as the Southern Kenya Northern Tanzania landscape. International partners include the UK and EU as well as UNDP and WWF.
Our Greening Kenya Initiative involves the prisons department and schools to develop 500 million seedlings through nurseries. There is the Environmental Soldier Programme in KDF. We are involving women's groups and community forest groups. We are ensuring we develop as many seedlings as possible.
Several commercial banks are supporting us, including Equity bank that plans to plant 35 million trees. ABSA bank plans to plant 10 million seedlings. Others include Co-operative Bank, I&M Bank and even the Catholic Church, among many other groups.
Image: ELGEYO MARAKWET
How are you strengthening community involvement?
We recently directed all Community Forest Associations countrywide elect new officials because many had overstayed. A section was compromised with some illegally collecting money from communities to rent forest land.
As PS, I now can drive the whole process and monitor the groups because many have received support to develop tree nurseries. We are working with the National Treasury and the UNDP for a Tree Growing Fund to help purchase seedlings from communities.
What has been the impact of the logging ban in forests and the initiative to reclaim and conserve them?
The Cabinet partially lifted the ban on logging, allowing only 12,355 acres to be opened up. But if we had focused on conservation of forests we wouldn’t need a ban because there would be enough supply to meet demand for timber. With continuous planting of trees, forests would not have been depleted leading to the ban.
Are you resolving conflicts with indigenous forest communities, such as the Sengwer, Ogiek and others?
We still have issues with communities especially the Sengwer in Elgeyo Marakwet and the Ogiek in Mau. The communities have laid strong claims to the forests being their home and source of livelihood. The Ogiek filed a case at the East African Court of Justice in Arusha to defend their indigenous people’s rights.
They won the case and we are now under instructions to find ways to implement that decision. We will enforce it. We are resettling people who were genuinely given land by the government. We are also resettling those living in dangerous areas such as North Rift escarpments where there are frequent landslides.
In Embobut forest the EU had threatened to withdraw funding over claims of human rights violations against the Sengwer during evictions. How was that resolved?
EU funding had a timeline and the human rights issues raised by the community were not resolved in time so the funding period lapsed before funds were used. But we had made progress in dealing with the issues. Though we regret it lapsed, we will carry forward the gains we made as we address the issues of indigenous communities as per the Arusha decision.
Why is water rising in lakes causing serious flooding in many regions?
Due to climate change, Kenya like other vulnerable countries, is experiencing frequent and intense droughts and floods with far-reaching consequences for communities, ecosystems and infrastructure. The estimated loss is three per cent of GDP annually.
The rising lakes have spurred us to act. We formed a multi-agency task force to look into causes of the rising lakes, the extent or impact of the problem and possible solutions.
I chaired the technical team and we learned one main cause is first climate change, especially a phenomenon that heats the Indian Ocean while it's very cold on the side of Western Australia. This precipitates heavy rains in the region.
One thing is clear — climate change is real and we have to undertake mitigation and adaptation measures because it will be with us for some time.
Another reason for rising lakes is high degradation of land with most catchment areas being destroyed. During heavy rains, silt is swept into the lakes displacing water and causing the lakes to rise. The other cause is geological, the movement of tectonic plates.
Image: HANDOUT
What climate change mitigation measures are in place?
One measure is forest restoration of forests. Our farmers have to do climate smart agriculture so they take preventive measures and avoid floods sweeping people away.
We are investing more in resourcing and equipping our meteorological department so it can be accurate in forecasting and dissemination of information. Early warning will enable timely decision-making.
We are transforming the meteorological department into an independent parastatal and give it support to be more effective. We also must ensure our infrastructure like roads is climate smart.
The Climate Change Act and the Climate Change Council chaired by the President help drive and guide the mitigation measures.
What is the cost of mitigating climate change in Kenya?
We are members of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change under the UN. We have to be more ambitious in dealing with climate change. We have submitted our updated report detailing everything required.
To mitigate against climate change, we need more than Sh1.8 trillion in the next 10 years. To adapt to climate change, we require Sh4.4 trillion, totalling Sh6.3 trillion.
But we can only raise 13 per cent internally while the rest we must source externally from our partners. The President has been very active in engaging the international community.
This is a matter of life and death and forest conservation is no joke. The impact of rising lakes is huge because, for example, Lake Baringo's volume increased by 108 per cent, from 33,606 acres it doubled. Lake Nakuru increased by 84 per cent, Lake Naivasha went up by 42 per cent, Lake Bogoria rose by 26 per cent, Lake Victoria by 1 per cent on and Lake Turkana by 11 per cent.
The impact ravaged many communities. In Lake Baringo, for example, 24 schools were submerged, many hotels and homes were submerged. In Lake Bogoria many wildlife came out and around Lake Turkana we had 19 crocodile attacks. Irrigation schemes were swept away in Nyanza and Turkana. So the impact of climate change is massive and we have to mitigate it.
What's the progress in resolving conflicts around Mau forest and other water towers?
We have 18 gazetted water towers and have made huge gains on Mau Forest. Painful decisions were made in restoration. We have to protect the forest and also deal with issues of [displaced] communities. We have made a lot of progress but it's evident most of the water towers are seriously degraded and need continuous restoration. We are working with donors and partners to conserve them.
What about involvement of leaders like politicians in dealing with conservation, especially in Mau area?
We have made good progress with a multi-agency team leading the process. Government is keen to address issues raised by the Ogiek community and other residents with full involvement of their leadership. In some instances, the government has taken land from communities living there illegally. In other cases, the government has also given out land to genuine people in need. However, we always prioritise conservation.
What are the main challenges in achieving forest cover and managing forests?
A major challenge is inadequate funding. Because of Covid-19, we have suffered budget cuts. We also have generally poor governance in the sector, especially managing Community Forest Associations. There's a lot of demand for public land to build infrastructure and forests are largely targeted. Increasing population puts pressure on forests. We don't have enough guards to take care of forests.
What is your vision?
We can achieve our targets especially if we educate communities on the importance of forests. We also have to adapt to change, such as having schools use biogas instead of firewood.
It’s obvious a green and circular economy is the way to go. I am doing it at home where I have a dairy farm and use the waste to produce biogas, generating power for milking, lighting, cooking, so reduce demand for firewood.
We should also ensure mass production of seeds and seedlings and then mass planting. For our survival, it's necessary for all of us to be involved. We need Kenyans to understand the need for conservation, then there will be less need for policing. BY THE STAR
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