Notwithstanding environmentalists’ worries, Kenyan President William Ruto stated on Sunday that he will relax a logging moratorium that has been in effect since 2018.
Ruto claimed the decision was “long overdue” and aimed at creating employment and launching companies at a church service in Molo, a town some 200 kilometres north-west of Nairobi.
“We cannot allow old trees to decay in woods while villagers suffer from a shortage of timber. It is nonsense “He stated. “This is why we have chosen to free up the forest and harvest timber in order to create jobs and develop businesses for our kids.”
The Kenyan president, who has positioned himself at the forefront of African efforts in the fight against climate change, says his government will maintain its goal of planting 15 billion trees over the next ten years.
Greenpeace Africa, however, says the decision “could have devastating consequences for the environment”.
“In Kenya, forests are home to rare and endangered species, and millions of local people depend on these forests for their livelihoods, relying on them for food and medicine,” the organisation wrote last month in a petition against the move.
“Since the Kenyan government imposed the ban on logging six years ago, significant progress has been made in forest protection and with combatting the climate crisis,” it said.
“Lifting the ban will undo all our hard work, as it will open the floodgates to commercial and illegal logging solely driven by profit.”
The 2018 ban, which was put in place by the previous government, aimed to stop illegal logging and raise Kenya’s forest cover to 10%.
Currently forest cover in the country stands at 8.8%, according to government statistics, while the forestry and logging industry contributed 1.6% to the Kenyan economy in 2022.
