Join the Green Revolution, official urges residents in tree planting exercise in Lugari

BY MELECHEZEDECK EJAKAIT-KNA 

Secretary of Administration in the State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action, Moses Ivuto, has urged Kakamega residents to embrace the culture of growing and nurturing trees to maturity. 

Ivuto, who represented the State Department’s Principal Secretary, made this appeal during a tree-planting exercise in the Lumama area of Lugari Forest in Lugari SubCounty, where over 3,000 indigenous tree seedlings were planted. 

“There is a difference between planting and growing. Initially, we used to merely plant and then leave without following up to see whether the trees survived or died. 

However, we now want to change that notion by encouraging everyone to nurture the trees,” he stated. Ivuto emphasized the importance of protecting the trees to ensure they grow to maturity rather than just planting them and leaving them to grow on their own. 

He urged the community to embrace the tree-growing program initiated by President William Ruto last year, aimed at increasing the country’s forest cover to 30 percent in the next ten years by planting 15 billion trees. 

He said, “Let us grow more trees to improve our environment. Climate change is real. We now receive rainfall when we don’t expect it while dry spells occur when we expect rainfall. “This is due to climate change and we can only mitigate it by planting trees and transforming our environment.” 

Kakamega County Forest Conservator Mark Odero reminded residents of the adverse effects of climate change saying this is the right time for them to take action and grow trees. 

He said, “Right now worldwide we have an animal called climate change. When we expect to have rain, it does not rain. When we expect a dry spell it rains. This is becoming a bigger challenge across the globe. 

Currently, if you look at our forests we have trees that were initially not there while some of those that existed before have disappeared. This is the impact of climate change and we can only combat it by increasing the forest cover. 

Odero noted that Kakamega County, whose forest cover stands at 17 per cent currently has seven established forest blocks namely Lugari, Turbo, Nzoia, Malava, Kakamega, Bunyala and Misango which was recently created in Butere Sub-County. 

He said the forest blocks consist of indigenous trees and plantations for commercial purposes. The Conservator said it is the duty of all stakeholders to take care and ensure the newly planted trees mature without disturbance. 

“Planting trees is not an issue. The challenge is in ensuring they grow to maturity. This is a swampy place, so I don’t expect the trees to die unless members of the public decide to graze on livestock. However, just like they have joined us in planting the trees they should also be ready to assist us in taking care of them,”Odero said. 

Bernard Kisanja, who is in charge of forest security in Kakamega County, urged residents to avoid grazing animals in the forests especially during the dry periods to safeguard the young trees. 

The Deputy County Commissioner Simon Mutai said it is the prerogative of each resident to conserve the environment and restore the ecosystem by planting and nurturing trees. He said it will be a waste of time and resources to simply plant trees in the forest and leave them to survive on their own. 

Lugari Constituency manager Rajab Mukolwe, who represented the area Member of Parliament Nabii Nabwera, cited livestock grazing inside the forests as the major challenge slowing down the reforestation process. 

“We shall plant trees but nurturing to maturity is a problem. We need people from the community to take care of them. The forest rangers alone cannot manage without the good will of the communities living around the forests,” he stated. 

Mukolwe disclosed that the MP has set a target of growing over two million trees across the constituency by 2027. “We are partnering with the Turbo National Youth Service Field Unit and so far we have distributed tree seedlings to all learning institutions in the constituency and we believe the two million tree target is achievable,” Mukolwe said. 

He appealed to respective government authorities to find a way of allowing community members to undertake small-scale agricultural activities in the forests to enable them to protect and nurture the newly planted trees, especially from livestock. 

Lugari Community Forest Association chair Francis Iseru pledged to mobilize the community members to safeguard the newly planted trees and ensure they grow to maturity. He appealed to the government to support community members and groups engaged in environmental conservation to enable them dispose of the ready tree seedlings in their nurseries.