EAC Principal Secretary Dr Caroline Karugu joins residents during a tree planting exercise at Marania Forest in Meru County.
East African Community (EAC) Principal Secretary Dr Caroline Karugu has called for urgent and united action to tackle deforestation and climate change across the region.
Karugu spoke on Tuesady, May 12, during a tree planting exercise at Marania Forest in Meru County, where more than 450 residents joined officials from the State Department for East African Community Affairs in support of President William Ruto's target of planting 15 billion trees by 2032.
"Urgent, united effort is required to tackle the deforestation and climate crises within the EAC. For Kenya, protecting our nature as we are doing in Meru, is both a national responsibility and a global pledge to secure a sustainable future," said Karugu.
The exercise brought together State Department interns, the County Forest Conservator and his team, the County Commissioner and residents.
Karugu said the participation by residents reflected growing public support for conservation efforts and forest restoration.
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"The dedication of the people of Meru County in supporting the President's national vision of planting 15 billion trees by 2032 is commendable. Together with the staff and interns of the State Department of EAC Affairs, we joined the local community in furtherance of this vision," she noted.
Kenya launched the 15-billion-tree campaign in 2022 to increase forest cover, restore 5.1 million hectares of degraded land and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with 2032 set as the deadline.
The campaign requires planting 1.5 billion trees every year to stay on track.
As of April 2025, the country had planted 783 million trees in total since the launch, less than six per cent of the overall goal and well short of the annual pace required.
The scale of the challenge extends across the region. The thirteen East African countries lost nearly eight million hectares of forest between 2010 and 2020, driven by agricultural expansion, illegal logging and inadequate cross-border forest governance.
Kenya alone has shed approximately 12,000 hectares of forest cover annually since independence, leaving the country below the global minimum forest cover threshold of 10 per cent.
The government's target is to lift forest cover from the current 8.8 per cent to 30 per cent by 2032.