Nairobi, 15 January
2010 – Kenya took a step to restore its
diminishing water towers and address rapid
environmental degradation when it launched
a tree planting drive in the Kiptunga area
of the Mau Forest Complex on Friday.
20,000 tree seedlings
were planted on 20 hectares at a ceremony
attended by Kenya's Prime Minister Raila
Odinga and United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) Deputy Executive Director, Angela
Cropper.
Mau, the largest indigenous
forest in East Africa and Kenya's most vital
water tower, covers some 270,000 hectares.
After Mau, restoration will also take place
in Mt. Kenya, Aberdares, Mt. Elgon and the
rest of Kenya's forests and water catchment
areas with the aim of increasing the forest
cover from the current 1.7 percent to 10
percent by the year 2020.
In partnership with
the government and other stakeholders, including
Kenyan NGOs, UNEP has assisted in chronicling
and raising awareness about the damage and
the degradation of East Africa's largest
closed-canopy forest.
Over the last two decades,
the Mau Complex has lost around 107,000
hectares - approximately 25% - of its forest
cover, which has had devastating effects
on the country as a whole; including severe
droughts and floods, leading to loss of
human lives and livelihoods, crops and thousands
of head of livestock.
UNEP's contribution
to the national debate that has surrounded
the Mau has been based on science and the
economics, and in 2009 it appointed an expert
to provide technical advice to a government-led
Mau task force.
One of the findings
of this task force was that continued destruction
of the forests will inevitably lead to a
water crisis of national and regional proportions
that extend far beyond the Kenyan borders.
The impetus to restore
the Mau is particularly strong this year,
as the world marks the International Year
of Biodiversity.
So far, the international
community has failed to reverse the rate
of loss of biodiversity. Economies everywhere
continue to dismantle the productive life-support
systems of planet Earth.
The latest estimates
by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity
(TEEB) study, which UNEP hosts, estimates
that up to US$5 trillion-worth of natural
or nature-based capital is being lost annually.
However, through Friday's
tree-planting initiative, the Mau is emerging
as a possible inspiring example of how the
tide can still be turned in favour of biodiversity
and sustainable ecosystem management.
After planting a Kaligen
Berekeiyet tree at the ceremony, UNEP Deputy
Executive Director Angela Cropper said:
"These first saplings, planted in the
soils of Kenya, speak of new shoots and
new beginnings. New beginnings for a critical
ecosystem: new beginnings for the people
of Kenya who depend inextricably on the
services that the Mau forest complex generates."
UNEP Spokesman
Nick Nuttall planted a Podocarpus tree at
the event, declaring: "This is the
first tree I have planted, ever. It shows
that even at 51, it is never too late."
