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{
    "id": 16981,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/16981/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 117,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Wekesa",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Forestry and Wildlife",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 209,
        "legal_name": "Noah Mahalang'ang'a Wekesa",
        "slug": "noah-wekesa"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to reply. (a) My Ministry is keenly aware of the need to establish the percentage of forest cover in each county of the country. That will include gazetted forests, forest in Government institutions, trust lands and private farm lands. Inventories undertaken in the past were based on ecosystems and not in accordance with the county boundaries. In this regard, and in accordance with the new Constitution, my Ministry is in the process of undertaking a comprehensive national forest resource mapping to be classified in accordance with county boundaries. (b)According to international standards, a country is considered to be environmentally stable if the land is covered by 10 per cent of forest. This consideration takes into account where tree canopies overlap each other in a given area. However, nations of the world are yet to agree on a harmonized definition and quality of tree cover and forest cover. Work for the harmonization of the definition of tree and forest cover is going on at the global level. Using the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) reports on assessment of the status of world forests whose definition refers to the forests with a canopy density of over 40 per cent, the percentage of forest in Kenya, therefore, is 1.7 per cent, while based on Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) definition, whose definition refers to areas with forest canopy of 10 per cent. The national forest cover is 5.9 per cent. Based on either definition, Kenya national percentage of forest cover is below the global average and, hence, requires an urgent and concerted national effort geared towards achieving and maintaining the constitutional requirement of, at least, 10 per cent tree cover of the land area of Kenya. Kenya has adopted the UNEP’s assessment. (c) My Ministry is putting in place the following implementation strategies to ensure that each county implements the Constitution standards in forest cover:- 1. Revision of all the forest policy and Acts to capture aspects of increasing tree cover in line with the Constitution. 2. Rehabilitate all de-forestated and degraded areas. 3. Development of public/private partnership in the forest sector. 4. Promoting development, utilization, conservation and sustainable management of woodlands, bushlands, shrublands, forest resources in arid and semi arid lands for environmental stability and livelihood improvement. 5. Formulation of national forest programmes with clear county-based profiles to promote investments in the forest sector, especially in tree growing. 6. Mobilizing all stakeholders in the forest sector for effective participation in implementation of the constitutional requirement of increasing the national tree cover to 10 per cent. 7. Regularly monitoring the rate of increased forest cover using remote sensing control and field measurements. 8. Development of a framework to co-ordinate contribution of all sectors in tree growing in the country, including the Government, NGOs, CBOs, private sector and the media. 9. Developing guidelines on the implementation of the forest policy for achievement of forest cover in the counties."
}