The Commission for University Education (CUE) has launched an environmental conservation drive where it is engaging its stakeholders in growing trees especially during the current rainy season.
Speaking during a tree-planting exercise at Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST) CUE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Prof. Mike Kuria said the exercise was in response to the big call the country has, which is planting 15billion trees by 2030.
“We believe that all of us have a role to play in this call and one of the ways we are doing it is involving our stakeholders and as you know universities are our key stakeholders,” said Kuria.
He added: “We have planted more than 2000 trees today and one of the reasons we have done it here is that we know they will grow and that we will be passing by to look after them, even as we visit the institution for other activities within our mandate.”
Prof. Kuria also said that they were planting trees not only to meet the 15billion trees target, but because they believe that they need to do something to mitigate against climate change.
“We have stakeholders across the country and this is an activity as a commission we would like to continue with and be involving other universities as well in the future and hopefully we will meet this particular goal,” he said.
He called on other universities to play a role in climate change mitigation, adding that this is an issue that everyone needs to be conscious about.
MUST Vice Chancellor Prof. Romanus Odhiambo thanked CUE for picking the institution as one of the stakeholders to be involved in planting trees giving an assurance that the survival rate of trees in Meru University is almost 98 percent.
“We not only plant, but we also grow trees for the sake of our President’s directive to plant 15 billion trees. Each institution, especially the constituent institutions affiliated to CUE and especially the universities have been given a target of planting at least 130,000 trees per year and each has been asked to have a tree nursery of not less than 260,000 seedlings per year,” said Prof. Odhiambo.
He added: “What the commission is doing here today is going to build and strengthen the conservation goal. Those who have been around know that this was a desert but today we talk of a forest cover of about 14 percent having planted 76 acres of land.”
“We continue encouraging every Kenyan to fully take part in environmental conservation since climate change is a reality and we are all aware of what is happening in Kenya and the whole world today.”
“The only way of mitigating against the extreme climate effects is basically to plant and grow trees starting from our compounds,” said Prof. Odhiambo.
If we do this, he added, then we can be assured of leaving something for our children and building something that will help people later on in terms of the survival of humanity and all biodiversity.
By Dickson Mwiti