BY GEORGE MUGO
The government plans to fence all public forests in the country to reduce human destruction, Kenya Forest Service director David Mbugua has said.
Mbugua said they want to have specific entries into the public forests during events such as tree planting, visitation by tourists and researchers and tree harvesting. He said the fence will help foresters, rangers and the communities living near the forests in their efforts to protect trees from illegal logging.
Mbugua was speaking during the ceremony to mark three years of partnership between the KFS and the Korean Embassy in Kenya in replanting Karera Forest in Lari constituency.
“Here in Karera, we have had problems of people entering into our forests and cutting down trees. Our mission is to work hand in hand and ensure we attain 10 per cent of forest cover within the next 10 years,” he said.
Mbugua was accompanied by Korean Ambassador to Kenya Choi Dongyou, KFS board chairman Peter Kirigua and Kiambu forest conservator George Njenga.
Dongyou urged the community to educate people on the importance of forests. He said his government supports Kenya’s development agenda.
Dongyou said the Korean government is committed to seeing Kenya achieve its goals towards attaining a better environment and becoming developed like others countries of the world.
“I am assuring the government of Kenya that Korea is together with you in this journey of attaining good environment and clean water,” he said. Kirigua urged the ambassador to assure people Koreans they are free to visit Kenya since security is tight.
He said they should not to be “misled” by other envoys who had earlier advised their citizens to leave the country. “I would urge you to help us sell this country’s tourism products and beauty in your country and welcome your people here,” Kirigua said. “If the security was bad, you wouldn’t have risked coming into this forest. It is you who is here that can tell them how secure we are.”
Courtesy of the-star.co.ke