The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resource to Embark on forestry Seedlings.

The Kitui County will Continue embarking on environmental conservation, so far we have over 282 forests of which 17 are managed by the Kenya ForeThest Service and 265 by the county government, the County Environment and Natural Resources Minister John Muneeni Makau has disclosed.

The minister also disclosed that currently the county’s forest cover stands at 6.9 per cent. “This year we have planted about 800,000 tree seedlings in the county of which 600,000 are by the county government and 200,000 by the community by their own. And we are planning to plant about one million tree seedlings by the close of the year,” Makau announced.

He was speaking on Friday, September 28, 2018 when he officially closed the Forestry Society of Kenya’s 13^thconference held at the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI)Kitui Regional Research Centre. The minister closed the three-day conference on behalf of Governor Charity Kaluki Ngilu.

The conference, whose participants were the forest scientists from across Kenya, was officially opened by the Environment and Natural Resources Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko on Wednesday, September 26, 2018. Makau highly thanked the foresters (the participants) “for the noble work you do in the sustainable forest management.”

The international community has to recognise the noble work you do, he told them. “We are appreciative for the forest cover you are promoting in Kenya,” he told them. Makau said that the Kitui County government took a bold measure in banning the charcoal and sand trade in the county in January 2018 as a result of the heinously wanton destruction of trees and forests there through charcoal production and sand harvesting.

The minister disclosed that Kitui is one of the five counties in Kenya that have launched the county climate change funds. “The other four are Garissa, Makueni, Wajir and Isiolo,” the minister said. He disclosed that the Kitui County has a total of seven water towers namely Endau, Muumoni, Nuu, Mutha, Mutitu, Mutomo and Mutulukuni.

The end of the story.