The Mt Kenya Times 
Chief Conservator of Forests Alex Lemarkoko holding a seedling at Uplands forest in Kiambu county
By George Mugo
Communities living forests in Kiambu have been planting seedbeds in order to boost tree planting go on without stopping.
They have vowed to support by all means the 5 billion tree planting by 2032 exercise which was started by President William Ruto.
At Lari Sub County, the local community which is under Uplands Community Forest Association, yesterday said they have developed seedbeds with different types of trees.
A member of the CFA John Mwathi said that they have developed seedbeds at the forests and others at their homes.
He thanks the Kenya Forest Service officials for their continued support and lessons on which trees to plant and when to plant them.
“The KFS has allocated us some sections inside the forest, where we have developed seedbeds. As if is not enough, many of our members have developed seedbeds at their homes” he revealed.
“We do not want to hear any exercise at Uplands forest having stoped due to lack of seedlings. What shall we be doing?” he wondered.
Plantation Establishment and Livelihood System committee chairman John Njane said they also keep checking the development of trees planted in the forests.
Pelis is the program that was replaced with Shamba System, and once local communities are allocated with pieces of land, the KFS and CFA plants trees on them so that they can be natured together with food crops, Njane said.
“We encourage locals with pieces of land to cultivate for those trees in their pieces of land since the are always recorded in the Jaza Miti App. Losing any of those trees, it means we shall be giving wrong results” he said.
Njane said “We have requested the beneficiaries to keep adding manure and even top dress those trees when they are doing so to their food crops”.
The KFS said over 846,863,143 million trees have been planted throughout the country since the exercise was launched by Ruto in December 2023.
Chief Conservator of Forest Alex Lemarkoko said that the country has a lot of work ahead of planting more trees so as to achieve it target.
He attributed the realisation of that number is from the tireless effort of the service as well as the stakeholders.
The CCF also noted that, the country understand the campaign the government did towards the environmental conservation, owing to its destruction some years ago where trees were cut down carelessly without being replanted.
“Kenya set a bold target of growing 15 billion trees by 2032 so as to restore 10.6 million hectares of degraded landscape” he said.
“By so doing, it will secure water towers, enhancing biodiversity, improve livelihoods, and ensuring that our children will inherit a greener, healthier and more climate resilient nation” Lemarkoko said.
Another CFA member Peter Karichu said that they have also been planting seedlings of fruits saying they will benefit with timber as well as fruits from such trees.
“There are those people who will look for fruits instead of just planting a tree. We have trees such as avocado’s. They will give you firewood, fruits and even timber” he said.
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