By Bisola Adeyemo
Homa Bay County Conservator in Kenya, Mr. George Olugah says communities should be sensitize and educated on the importance of tree planting in an environment.
Olugah stated this on Monday while speaking with Kenya news agency during a tree planting session at Kamato Primary School in Lambwe within Suba North Sub-County to commemorate the international day of forest.
Olugah said that the commemoration, whose theme was “Sustainable Production and Consumption,” was aimed at ensuring that the environment is protected and well managed.
He however stated that forest coverage within Homa Bay County was still very low at 2 per cent instead of the targeted 10 per cent forest coverage, adding that nationally, the same stands at 7.4 per cent.
Olugah noted with concern that it was upon all the partners to agree and come together to ensure that the forest is conserved, re-afforest all degraded areas and ensure the private sector is involved.
“What we do at KFS (Kenyan Forest Services), is to engage ourselves in partnering with other stakeholders because we cannot achieve our goal of 10 per cent forest cover if we do it alone,” he said.
Olugah said that in as much as they were trying to conserve, their aim was to keep the livelihoods by engaging partners adding that this could only be achieved through community sensitization events such as Chiefs’ barazas.
“The sensitization of the community includes educating them on the importance of Income Generating Activities (IGAs),” he added.
