Despite environmentalists’ fears, Kenyan President William Ruto announced on Sunday the lifting of a nearly six-year ban on logging.
The measure, according to Ruto, is “long overdue” and aims to create jobs and open up sections of the economy that rely on forest products.
“We can’t have mature trees rotting in forests while locals suffer due to lack of timber. That’s foolishness,” he said at a church service in Molo, a town about 200 kilometres (120 miles) northwest of the capital Nairobi.
“This is why we have decided to open up the forest and harvest timber so that we can create jobs for our youth and open up business.”
Ruto, who has positioned himself at the vanguard of African efforts to tackle climate change, stated that the government will proceed with plans to plant 15 billion trees over the next ten years.
The lifting of the ban is expected to please saw millers and timber merchants who had complained that it had resulted in significant job losses.
The former government established the moratorium in public and community forests in February 2018 with the goal of rooting out chronic illicit logging and expanding the nation’s forest cover to 10%.
Greenpeace Africa, on the other hand, has warned that the decision will have “catastrophic environmental consequences.”
“In Kenya, forests are home to rare and endangered species, and millions of local people depend on these forests for their livelihoods, relying on them for food and medicine,” it said last month in a petition against the move.
“Since the Kenyan government imposed the ban on logging six years ago, significant progress has been made in forest protection and with combatting the climate crisis,” it said.
“Lifting the ban will undo all our hard work, as it will open the floodgates to commercial and illegal logging solely driven by profit. Our forests will be at the mercy of sawmillers who have no regard for the consequences.”
According to government data, forestry and logging contributed 1.6 percent to Kenya’s economy last year, and total forest cover is expected to be 8.8 percent in 2022.
