COP28: Kenya Seeks Ksh.500B To Complete 15 Billion Trees Planting Initiative
Kenya’s Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry is inviting local and international allies to support their initiative of planting 15 billion trees by 2032. They’re urging both local and global partners to join in sponsoring this tree-planting campaign.
During the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, UAE, the ministry highlighted Kenya’s requirement of Ksh.500 billion for the project, aiming for an annual budget of Ksh.50 billion.
As per the ministry’s statement, they are seeking partnerships in various regions of Kenya, encompassing officially designated forests, wetlands spanning the nation’s grasslands, mountains, and water sources, as well as the preservation of mangroves and coastal ecosystems.
Areas in which the nation faces obstacles and requires assistance comprise seedling cultivation, enclosure establishment, adoption of ecosystems for rehabilitation, nursery development, logistical aid, and communication outreach.
The ministry has emphasized that the goal of planting 15 billion trees aims to rehabilitate and safeguard 10.6 million hectares of damaged landscapes and ecosystems. This endeavor is geared towards reaching a 30% tree cover in Kenya by 2032. Its objectives encompass biodiversity preservation, maintaining environmental sustainability, promoting sustainable livelihoods, enhancing climate resilience, and fostering socio-economic development.
The primary aim of the National Landscape and Ecosystems Restoration Strategy is to close the divide and unite collective endeavors towards restoring the seven deteriorated landscapes and ecosystems in a coordinated manner.
The ministry highlighted the urgency in expediting strategies to tackle the primary causes of decline in every ecosystem, aiming to prevent, stop, and reverse degradation.
Plans to accomplish the objective involve the cultivation of 15 billion trees by the year 2032, along with various additional endeavors.
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The National Landscape and Ecosystem program aims to focus on seven different ecosystems, comprising forests, agroecosystems, wetlands, rangelands, settled areas, mountain ecosystems, and marine ecosystems.
As per the ministry’s statement, the initiative to plant 15 billion trees holds significance due to various reasons: it fulfills a constitutional mandate for achieving 30% tree coverage, offers economic advantages such as job creation and expanded forest resources, aids in mitigating climate change aligning with Sustainable Development Goal 13 on Climate Action and global commitments like Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to curb global warming. Additionally, it strengthens community resilience against climate-related challenges and natural calamities, contributes to biodiversity conservation, and facilitates the restoration of damaged landscapes and ecosystems, among other benefits.
The ministry was joined by other delegates attending COP28 in Dubai led by Kenyan Cabinet Secretaries Soipan Tuya (Forestry) and Njuguna Ndung’u (Treasury), where they made a presentation at a side event session with World Bank representatives.
COP28: Kenya Seeks Ksh.500B To Complete 15 Billion Trees Planting Initiative
