Transport ministry targets to plant 30 million trees

The National Tree Growing and Restoration Campaign requires each Kenyan to plant 30 trees a year. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]

Ministry of Roads and Transport targets to plant 30 million trees, with 20 million being planted by the State Department for Roads and 10 million by the State Department for Transport.

So far, the State Department for Roads has planted 415,000 trees, while the State Department for Transport has managed 16,100 trees.

Speaking during the tree planting in Mikindani in Mombasa County, Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the exercise is a key component of the country's efforts to build climate change resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while restoring 10.6 million hectares of deforested and degraded landscapes through the African Landscape Restoration Initiative (ALRI) that was launched last year.

"The thirty million trees we aim to plant will help us reach the target of 15.9 billion trees under the National Tree Growing and Restoration Campaign and Kenya's Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Programme and increase the national tree cover to 30 per cent by 2032," he said.

The National Tree Growing and Restoration Campaign requires each Kenyan to plant 30 trees a year. This means every Kenyan will plant 300 trees in 10 years.

Murkomen said the State Departments for Roads and Transport would be required to continue planting trees throughout the year and meet their targets by June next year.

Mombasa, with a population of 1,208,333 people, currently has a tree cover of 23.75 per cent. The county targets to plant 7,452,454 trees in 10 years.

The CS noted that some 165,421 seedlings have been planted in Mombasa under the Jaza Miti Initiative against the seedling propagation target of 1,199,537.

Murkomen said trees and forests play an essential role in mitigating the impact of climate change.

"Deforestation, urbanization, industrial development, agricultural expansion and unsustainable agricultural practices are undermining the ability of ecosystems to sustain food production, maintain freshwater and forest resources, as well as regulate climate and air quality," he said.

In the last decade alone, he said, the terrestrial ecosystems absorbed about 30 per cent of carbon emissions produced by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.