Migori residents urged to utilize short rains to plant more trees

Nov 3, 2023 - 12:07

Members from the Kenya Forest Research Institute (KFRI), Kenya Forest Service (KFS), and Migori County Officials during past event in Mabera Sub County-Kuria.

Migori

Friday, November 3, 2023

KNA by Geoffrey Makokha

Migori County Commissioner Mr. David Gitonga has urged the residents to utilize the September-December short rains by planting trees.

The county has been experiencing reliable rainfall since September and according to Migori Meteorological Service, they will continue to experience short rains of between 456 to 655mm until the end of January 2024.

Gitonga said that the county was embarking on a mission to plant at least 300,000 trees in November and December to boost its forest cover, which is still below one percent.

“We are encouraging all our stakeholders in the private sector, public institutions, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and residents to come on board and help our county achieve the required forest cover of 10 percent,” said Gitonga.

The administrator acknowledged that so far the county has managed to plant 1.2 million trees since August this year to increase the number to two million by the end of the September-December short rains.

The Kenyan government had set an ambitious project to plant 15 billion trees by 2032 and conserve natural resources like Mau Forest. The country has also focused on increasing the number of new forest rangers and forest officers to help in the forest restoration program.

Migori County is one of the counties with the lowest forest cover of about 0.7 percent against the set requirement of 10 percent. Other counties with less than one percent forest cover include; Marsabit, Mandera, Wajir, Isiolo, Siaya, Busia, Machakos, and Taita-Taveta.

However, according to the Migori Forest Service department, the government-owned tree nursery institutions and privately owned nurseries have more than 160,000 and 190,000 trees respectively that were ready to be planted.

Gitonga said that local administrators have been encouraged to have tree nurseries to help the public in tree planting.

He also called upon the local administrators to always plant trees whenever they hold public barazas to boost the county's set target of forest and tree cover.

Courtesy; KNA