PROPOSED DELETION OF KENYA FOREST ACT OPPOSED

INSTITUTE FOR CULTURE AND ECOLOGY(ICE) CONDEMNS THE PROPOSED ERASURE OF SECTION 34(2)
OF THE KENYA FOREST CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT ACT 2016

By Martin Mwenda Muriuki (Executive Director Institute for Culture and Ecology)

The proposed deletion of the section

34(2) of the Kenya Forest Conservation

and Management Act,

2016, is not only outrageous but also

undermines the conservation efforts by

stakeholders to protect

Kenya’s forests and should be condemned

with the strongest terms. By intending

to strike off this

section, the National Assembly’s

Procedure and House Rules Committee has

showcased their

insensitivity to the protection of

public forests, an act that is not only

selfish but risks exposing the

forests to wanton destruction and

encroachment as witnessed in the 1990s

and 2000. hence

threatening the existence of

biodiversity and other critical

resources harbored there.

Section 34(2) clearly spells out the

need to protect public forests from

boundary variations and any

other undertakings that are a risk to

the forests. Why then would the same

section that safeguards our

public forests be subjected to deletion?

It beats any human understanding that

Kenya has taken so

many years to try and recover from the

wanton destruction of her forests yet

the same people who are

bestowed with the authority to develop

measures to strengthen the existing

policies and strategies are

the same ones who are frustrating

forests protection efforts.

Kenya being a signatory to international

treaties among them the PARIS Agreement

and also being a

member of the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),

has been keen

on combating dangerous human

interference with the climate system by

increasing the country’s

forest cover as means of stabilizing

greenhouse gases. Hence, any alteration

to the Act will undermine

these efforts that the country has

worked tirelessly to implement. Is this

what conservation is all about?

Exposing what has taken years to protect

to unscrupulous individuals with their

own selfish interests?

It is an open secret that the current

Forest Conservation and Management Act

2016 has played a

significant role in strengthening

measures on countering further

destruction of forests as witnessed

1990s. Through this act, the government

and communities neighboring the forests

have been

partnering to protect and conserve

forests through various activities that

have proven to be of mutual

benefit to all. By striking off section

34(2) from the act will not only destroy

the symbiotic relationship

that has been developed with the forests

and various stakeholders among them

hundred thousands of

community members but also expose water

catchment areas and biodiversity to

destruction.

The Institute for Culture and

Ecology(ICE) therefore supports the

Kenya Forest Service (KFS) in calling

for urgent cessation of any activities

aimed at deletion of section 34(2) of

the Forest Conservation and

Management Act 2016. To the National

Assembly’s Procedure and House Rules

Committee, instead of

seeking to erase section 34(2), you

should be working towards strengthening

policies and strategies

that are aimed at complimenting what is

contained in the act.

In the words of 2004 Nobel Laureate and

environmental activists the late

Professor Wangari Maathai,

who tirelessly fought for the

environment more so forests, “It’s a

matter of life and death for this

country. Kenya forests are facing

extinction and it is a man-made

problem.”