The people of Kenya were given a holiday on Monday to plant one hundred million trees throughout the country. Despite heavy rain, hundreds of people followed the government’s call in the capital Nairobi.
A government official expressed hope that people will voluntarily set aside a planting day every year in the future.
15 billion trees by 2032
Although President William Ruto likes to present himself as a pioneer in climate protection, in July he announced the lifting of a ban on logging that had been in place for almost six years. To compensate, his government plans to plant about 15 billion trees by 2032.
Ruto assured at the time that controlled forestry would create jobs and boost the economy. He described it as ‘madness’ to allow old trees to rot in the forests while sawmills have to import timber.
Although a court blocked the lifting of the logging ban, it also allowed the deforestation of several thousand hectares of old-growth forest. Kenya’s previous government introduced the ban in 2018 to combat “rampant” deforestation. At the time, it was warned that the country would lose 5,000 hectares of forest every year.
Source: Krone
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