Nakuru Ideal for Private Commercial Forestry

 Nakuru Deputy Governor H.E. Joseph Rutto receives a certificate of appreciation for gracing the KEFGA sensitization event held in Nakuru County

Secretary General KEFGA Mr. Benson Kanyi accompanied by Chairman Gen. (Rtd) Humphrey Njoroge address the media after the sensitization meeting in Nakuru recently

Gen. Njoroge making his presentation to local tree growers and journalists

Nakuru county which is home to the Southern Mau and Eburru water towers is one of the most suitable counties for commercial forestry in Kenya. The county is blessed with expansive land averaging between holdings of 1ha and several square kilometres and adequate rainfall. According to the Deputy Governor , H.E. Joseph Rutto, the county government will work with stakeholders like KEFGA to ensure that the potential and advantage that Nakuru has over other areas is exploited in a sustainable manner.

He was speaking in a function organised in Nakuru town by KEFGA to sensitize and create awareness on the potential of commercial forestry. The Kenya Forest Growers Association (KFGA) is calling upon the government and private institutions to support their objective aimed at providing a solution to the ever growing demand of wood and also contributed towards the conservation of natural forests whose purpose is to protect the water catchment areas.

KEFGA is a national association advocating for private forests and commercial forestry in Kenya. The association seeks to purse the need for ecologically sustainable management of forests for the environmental, economic and social benefits under the sustainable forest management paradigm.

The Energy Act and Policy and the Forest Policy and Forest Act recognise charcoal as an important source of energy and make provisions for its sustainable production, commercialization and utilization. In line with vision 2030, Kenya is developing forms of energy and charcoal as a key energy in this context. Private forest owners play a key role in wood fuel production and the creation of local value chains.

Despite this, the current Forest Bill, which is due for debate in Parliament soon, hardly recognises private commercial forestry and most emphasis is on conservation of natural forests in the limited state forests.

“The government recognises charcoal as an alternative energy, but it has failed to identify the means in which this trade is going to be sustained. Already, we are seeing the effects of wood demand in the country; deforestation in natural forests. We believe that the solution to wood supply as well as the sustainability of charcoal business in the country is through commercial forestry,” said Gen(Rtd) Humphrey Njoroge, the association’s chair during a sensitization event held in Nakuru for current and potential private forest growers.
The demand for wood in the country is quite high and 50 percent of this demand is being serviced from a mix of natural forests and plantation. Further, the 1994 Kenya Forest Master Plan predicted that there would be a 68 million tonnes per year wood deficit by 2020. Recent estimates for projected supply and demand for wood and wood products in the country are already 20 million tonnes deficit per year.

“The current plantation resources include 135, 000 hectares of government land and an estimated 14, 000 hectares of private land. This falls well short of what the country needs to produce a sustainable wood supply. Therefore, we are urging the government to provide proper legislation as well as financial support inorder to realize the full potential of Commercial Forestry,” said Mr. Kanyi.

Backing the association’s efforts was honourable Joseph Rutto the Deputy Governor of Nakuru County. “The situation on the ground is that Kenya has a wood deficit and we lose alot of revenue by importing from our neighbouring countries. We need to invest in commercial forestry,” said Honorable Rutto.

Despite very little technical and financial support, through its registered members, collectively KEFGA has invested Ksh. I.2 billion shillings and created 30, 000 jobs. This is proof that if the association gets financial support then achieving such outcomes will not be far fetched.

“We all see financial support for tea, coffee, wheat and pyrethrum from private banks, saccos, financial institutions in the likes of Faulu Kenya, which indicates that the financiers have faith in these businesses. We feel that it is about time tree growers also be considered because their business are based on very sound economics and science,” said Mr. Benson Kanyi, the association’s Secretary General.

Tree growers also recommend continuous training on tree technology as well as increased private sector involvement in forestry.  “If we are to reduce poverty levels in Kenya through job creation and reduce imports as well as ease pressure on our natural forest, then the challenges that forests growers face need to be addressed without further delay” added Mr. Kanyi.

“As KEFGA, we envision sustainable management of forests for environmental economic benefits. But this has been hindered by lack of financial support, a clear legal and policy framework, recognition in the Forest Bill and training facilities on the newest technologies of forest management,” said Gen(Rtd) Njoroge.

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. 

Harmonisation of EAC forestry laws welcome

Posted by: The People in Opinion, Stephen Ndegwa June 15, 2013 0 301 Views

By Stephen Ndegwa

Within the East Africa Partner States there are several challenges attributable to incoherence of laws and policies both within the forest sector and between relevant sectors. Over the years this has made forest laws both unrealistic and unenforceable and, ultimately, incapable of addressing such important issues as land tenure and use rights. Poor forest governance has plagued Africa for years.

Weak institutions, weak laws and policies, unbalanced power and gender relations, corruption and clientelism have all been regularly implicated in the continuing loss and degradation of the continent’s forests. Between 2000 and 2005, Africa saw a net forest loss of 240,000 sq km, more than half the forest lost globally during this period.

(Africa lost 1.9 million hectares every year between 1990 and 2000 and 3.5 million hectares every year in 2000-2010). Tanzania alone accounted for 10 per cent of this loss. Among the East African Community (EAC) members, only Rwanda saw a net gain in forests cover due to extensive tree planting. The societal costs of poor forest governance, in form of reduced goods and services, lost taxes and royalties, and erosion of rural livelihoods, are substantial.

Illegal logging and evasion of timber taxes, for example, are thought to cost developing countries more than US$15 billion a year. Equivalent details for the EAC are scarce, though Tanzania’s government is estimated to be losing revenues of about US$58 million a year from illegal activities.

The revenue lost by Tanzania is enough to build more than 10,000 secondary school classrooms in the country. Although the impacts of poor governance have not gone unnoticed by African governments, the political response has been slow. However, this is changing. In October 2003, at Yaoundé in Cameroon, ministers from 31 African countries adopted a declaration on improving forest law enforcement and governance (FLEG).

In September 2006, the three original member countries of the EAC held the First EA Consultative Forum on Forests in Arusha, Tanzania. The forum recommended the launching of a regional FLEG process under the auspices of the EAC to implement the Yaoundé declaration. Since then, each country has been assessing its forest governance needs and organising multi-stakeholder consultations to canvass ideas for action.

The EAC member States shared their preliminary results at a regional workshop in October 2008 in Nairobi. This meeting produced an outline of a regional FLEG action plan, together with a road map for its completion and approval. It was felt that the trade component should feature in the process, hence the initiative expanded from FLEG to FLEGT.

As a result, a number of initiatives aimed at spearheading FLEGT process have been going on under the stewardship of Lake Victoria Basin Commission’s Secretariat. The elements of FLEGT are important both at the national and regional levels in East Africa. At national level the elements of good forest governance, forest law enforcement, and trade in forest products and services are vital to national development; in for example meeting basic necessities of life like shelter, as well as supporting other sectors of the economy.

Proper implementation of FLEGT at national level will lead to securing of quality water supplies to support human, animal and plant life. FLEGT will also support key sectors of agriculture, livestock husbandry and wildlife management, which are pillars of livelihoods of the people and economies of EAC countries.

The writer is a communication specialist working with the Kenya Forestry Research Institute. simplyputcol@gmail.com

Courtesy of http://www.thepeople.co.ke 

KEFGA In The News- Part I

Since embarking on the awareness and sensitization around the country, KEFGA and the cause of Commercial Forestry have received a lot of positive coverage in the media.

Herebelow is coverage from December, 2013 and part of January 2014.

Kenya Airports Authority Showcases Eldoret Airport Plantation

During the recent Kenya Forest Growers Association (KEFGA) sensitization and awareness creation exercise held in Eldoret Town for Uasin Gishu and surrounding counties, Eldoret Airport was picked as a suitable case study of a successful commercial  plantation.

Below are some of the photos showing the beautiful clonal eucalyptus plantation :-

The uniform clonal plantation is part of the 1600 acreas of land that is earmarked for future expansion of the Airport 

The Uasin Gishu County Executive-Environment Mrs. Mary Njogu (2nd L) accompanied by KEFGA Chairman, Gen.(Rtd) Humphrey Njoroge and Eldoret Airport Manager Mr. Peter Wafula touring the plantation.   

 

The airport has already embarked on a second phase of planting to ensure that at all times the plantation has trees at different rotations

“Include Commercial Forestry in the Forest Bill” Uasin Gishu County Environment Executive urges the government

Far left,Gen.(Rtd) Humphrey Njoroge, Hon Isaac Terer Uasin Gishu county speaker and Mrs.Ann Njogu.

The Uasin Gishu County Environment Executive Mrs. Mary Njogu has challenged the government to include commercial forestry and private forests in the Forest Bill which is due for debate in parliament soon.

The private commercial forests sector is hardly recognized in the current Forest Bill which mostly emphasizes on the conservation of natural forests in the limited state forests.

Speaking during a commercial forest sensitization event in Eldoret, Mrs. Njogu noted that the country has seen an increase in wood demand which unfortunately the local supply is insufficiently. The result is increased imports which automatically translates loose of revenue to our neighbouring countries where we import from. 

  

“Statistics from Kenya Forest Master Plan predicted that there would be a 68 million tonnes per year wood deficit by 2020. Recent estimates for projected supply and demand for wood and wood products in the country are already 20 million tonnes deficit per year. This goes to show that there is a gap that needs bridging,” said Mrs. Njogu.

To meet this demand, deforestation on water catchment areas has been witnessed notably in the Mau Forest. Private forest growers feel that commercial forestry will provide a lasting solution and can immensely contribute towards economic growth and the conservation of environment.

The Kenya Forest Growers Association (KEFGA) a national association has been in the fore front representing and advocating for private forests and commercial tree growing in Kenya.

According to Gen. (Rtd)  Njoroge KEFGA’s Chairman, commercial forestry has the potential to create jobs in rural areas due to its low capital outlays. Private investment in forests not only assures land owners a return on their investment but will also secure Kenya’s energy sustainability, reduce pressure on natural forest and improve the trade balance by reducing imports of wood products. Commercial forestry would also enhance the increase of forest cover towards achievement of the 10% cover in line with the Constitution of Kenya 2010.

“Commercial forestry and private forest management has not been given much attention in Kenya as has been done in other countries such Uganda. The Ugandan government allocated 10, 000 hectares of  land to commercial forestry. Countries like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand have huge industries based upon privately managed forests,” said Gen.(Rtd) Njoroge.

The Forest Policy and Forest Act, 2005 are due for review to align them with the new constitution as well as address the realities in the marketplace and KEFGA members hope that commercial forestry can be recognized and incorporated in the governance structures of the forestry sub-sector.

KEFGA, a national association was formed and registered in 2008. It currently has 300 member who include commercial growers ranging in scale from 2 to 1, 000 acres who are located in numerous counties. So far the association has invested Ksh.1.2 billion and created 30,000 jobs.

KEFGA Embarks of Awareness Creation Programme

Nairobi, Kenya: Private forest growers are requesting the government and private institutions to support their initiatives in order to realise the sector’s immense potential contribution in economic growth, social benefits and conservation of the environment.   

With the realization that not enough is being done through the state organs and sector agencies, members of Kenya Forest Growers Association have embarked on a countrywide roadshow to sensitize and create awareness on the benefits and potential of commercial forestry.

Events are planned in areas of potential including Uasin Gishu, Nakuru, Western/Nyanza, Central and Coast Regions. The events which include interactions with County government leaders, journalists, local tree growers and potential members of KEFGA will include presentations, courtesy calls and facility visits to show case successful tree growers in the region.

 The meetings will be addressed by KEFGA Council members and commercial forestry experts.