Protecting private forests is critical By GEN (RTD) HUMPHREY NJOROGE

When Parliament resumes from recess sometime in January, the MPs will be met by an overflowing in tray of bills that need to be debated before being enacted. There is fear that some bills may not get the attention they deserve and one such bill is the National Forestry (Conservation & Management) Bill 2013 and the Forest Policy.

This bill is so important to Kenya and there is alarm amongst some key stakeholders                    that the interests of commercial tree growers may be unrepresented in the bill and the country could end up passing into law a defective or unrealistic instrument.

For many years, the forestry sector has been faced by a myriad of challenges including excision of state forest land, wanton destruction of natural forests, poaching of rare species, weak governance structures, lack of market oriented research, lack of resources to regulate, protect and police, lack of incentives for private investors, poor and duplication of laws and regulations amongst other challenges at national and local levels.

It was therefore a joy to many when the Forest Act, 2005 was enacted into law in 2007 incorporating many progressive changes like the inclusion of communities living near and benefiting from public forests in the governance which included Community Forest Associations (CFAs) at the grassroots and Forest Conservancy Committees (FCCs) at the regional levels.

In the five or so years since this organs were established and half-heartedly operationalized, not much has been achieved towards the original objectives. Apart from governance structures there were many clauses on policing and regulation of the market including movement permits, certificates of origin, powers to ban utilization of certain endangered species and so forth.

In 2010 when the constitution was promulgated there was more jubilation from environment stakeholders when protection of the environment was entrenched in Chapter 5. This Chapter dealt with the rights of the people and responsibilities of the state on environmental matters. In summary part of the chapter says that ”every person has the right to a clean and healthy environment, which includes the right a) to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations through legislative and other measures, particularly those contemplated in Article 69, and b) to have obligations relating to the environment fulfilled under Article 70”.

A close examination of this chapter shows a very uncanny similarity to the outcome statement from the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development after the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. There is nothing wrong with Kenya adopting such a crucial document built by global consensus on the importance of the environment. All Kenyans of goodwill should support the same. However the lack of acknowledgement of our local realities or even domestication of the same is something that we need to talk about.

The constitution further envisages a tree cover of at least ten per cent of the land area of Kenya and empowers any citizen with the powers to petition the courts for violations of the right to a healthy and clean and "an applicant does not have to demonstrate that any person has incurred loss or suffered injury".

While the 10% tree cover is welcome, there is not much said or done towards achieving that apart from the rhetoric of “need to protect our environment” that is sang by both the Government and the NGOs. Where is the land on which to plant the 10%? If state and community forests cannot afford more than 3%, then someone has to dedicate some of their suitable land to attain the balance of 7%.

The background on forestry governance I am setting seems well thought out, but that is exactly the problem with our forests and policies that govern them. We have spent a lot of time and energy on the wellbeing of the 2% state owned forests and very little on existing and potential private forests.

According to the World Bank, Kenya’s agricultural land occupies 271,000 sq. kms while forest land only occupies 34,980 sq.kms or 6.2% of all land. Only about 1.7% of Kenya’s land area is covered by State forests which include gazetted forests and community forests under the trusteeship of County Governments.  

It is obvious that private forests (those outside the government’s control) constitute the larger portion of Kenya’s forests. Seeing that there is no likelihood that any public land will be converted from current usage to forests (though the reverse is ever likely every passing day), shouldn’t the focus and attention of the proposed National Forestry (Conservation & Management) Bill 2013 be on the forests and trees growing on private land?

The proposed bill contains a lot of elaborate clauses on scientific, technical, policing and regulation instead of giving some little room for economic benefits of forestry. For as long as a close to 80% of energy used in Kenya is biomass sourced, the 1.7% of government forests will always be under attack. For as long as charcoal and firewood is the fuel driving the masses’ kitchens, it is futile to talk about environmental protection. As long as trees grown on private land are not deemed as a worthy economic activity deserving government’s attention and incentives, the little government forests that we have will remain under threat.  

Commercial forestry is a viable business that should be encouraged and incentivized in the same way we have structured the growing and marketing of tea, coffee or sugarcane. Tree farmers need market access and protection from unfair market practices.  For instance how can one explain how a eucalyptus pole from Chile is more competitive than one grown in Nandi Hills, Kilifi or Embu?

The 16,000 commercial tree growers with 28 million trees on 14,000 ha. of private land and another 500,000 potential growers are hoping that the MPs will look at the Bill with both environmental and economic benefits in mind come January, 2014. 

Gen. (Rtd) Humphrey Njoroge is the Chairman of Kenya Forest Growers Association (KEFGA). He is a commercial tree grower in Nakuru County

Article Courtesy of http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000102147&story_title=protecting-private-forests-is-critical and Standard Newspaper page 15.