Haven’t We Lost Half of Our Forest Cover in the Last Century? We Need Lose None No More
by Generius Kimotho Kimaru
The continuous authorised and non-authorised logging of trees places my country at the edge of a climate crisis. Trees are carbon sinks and in the wake of an average emission of approximately 10 million metric tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere through the combustion of fossil fuels. The destruction of forest cover to our tropical forests which act as rain catchment areas has gradually propelled land degradation. This affects agricultural activities directly. Agriculture feeds the entire Kenyan population and accounts for 35% of the Gross Domestic Product.
The national government under the ministries of forestry, agriculture, health and environment are tasked with carrying out surveys on weather patterns, documenting the rainfall patterns, to assess agricultural production. The media highlights the documented cases of hunger and starvation in the eastern and north western parts of the nation being the most affected areas. This is related to the semi-arid and arid conditions of the land. When the forest cover is tampered with, perennial rivers dry out. The pastoralist communities that depend on the rivers to quench their animals are affected.
Deforestation has displaced people living close to the forests and exposed them to wild animals who roam around their villages instances re-generated the human wildlife conflict. A few years ago, a lion was spotted in Kajiado having come from a nearby wild reserve. The felling makes the environment vulnerable to the effects of GHS gases. As such, abnormally high temperatures are being witnessed in
our nation. Trees are carbon sinks. They remove carbon naturally from the air. This means in their absence, there are more implications for human health such as respiratory diseases. Accelerating hunger and starvation can be associated to felling of trees which act as rain catchment areas in our forests. When our forests are left bare, rivers dry up and rainfall patterns become unpredictable.
The president of Kenya made a commitment during COP 26 to end deforestation by 2030. The Mau conservative has been protected and laws put in place to monitor land degradation. Mau is Kenya's largest water tower in the Mau Forest. Activists led by the GREEN INITIATIVE MOVEMENT prevented the felling of indigenous trees along with the ongoing construction of the Nairobi Express Way. Social groups such as Green Belt movements, PACJA, Global climate change and health association and many others. Mobilization to plant trees is in the right gear with notable societies such as the Climb a tree initiative targeting to plant 50,000 trees in a month’s time. The green initiative movement has done close to 30,000 trees so far. If I were the government, I would channel support in terms of information, research and finances to support a collaboration to spur climate change mitigation and adaptation for the loss of forest cover and subsequent land degradation. These are the ideal institutions that I would focus on; already making an impact on a bankable framework.
Construction industry
The majority of tree logging is done for commercial purposes. Wood is a construction material for manufacturing elements such as doors, ceilings, roofs and even houses. Wood chippings are used to manufacture MDF boards. In the rural setup, trees are cut to act as biomass fuel for homestead cooking, and factory activities such as roasting tea and coffee. The affected are the front liners and the fence liners. The frontliners being the agricultural practices, due to poor rainfall patterns. The fence liners; also, those nearing forests have their land degraded as a result of logging activities. The government has made a commitment to resolve deforestation by the year 2030. The civil societies and associations have embarked on a collective lobby to plant trees to address climate adaptation and mitigation.
A few months ago, the contractor constructing the Nairobi Express Highway considered felling a huge indigenous tree along Uhuru Highway at the centre of Nairobi. The Green initiative movement led by Wathuti Liz interceded and the tree was saved. In Mt Kenya region, the logging has affected the glaciers as it has been exposed to high temperatures. The glaciers are slowly fading away and it is projected they might disappear if the trend continues in the next 10 years. The issue of deforestation has allowed GHS gases into the atmosphere. This causes a steady rise in temperature. The glaciers in the MT KENYA are liquifying because of this effect. The forest cover that acts as a rain catchment affects agricultural activities. This year, the two rainy seasons had insufficient rainfall to sustain farming.
In Africa, carbon emissions from fossil fuels account to 500m cubic tonnes. The emission of carbon in the atmosphere in the absence of carbon sequestering mechanisms causes the temperatures to rise. On the global scene, this has been evident with the wildfires in California, heat waves in Indonesia, and rising sea levels as a result of the melting of glaciers in the Arctic. It is documented that the glaciers which were 4km thick in 1989 have melted by approximately 11mm due to the rise in global temperatures. This has affected indigenous communities because of constant flooding as experienced in Indonesia. Indigenous communities who live in the Amazon tropical forests have nothing to smile about. Their habitats have been destroyed; their livelihood is on the break of collapse.
The felling of trees has been in existence since I was born but the effects are visible in the 21st Century. The wood processing industries have been felling trees from tropical forests to satisfy the wood market demand globally.
I am driven to bring change and enhance human dignity. The idea of over-consumerism has created inequality in our society. Imagine an imbalanced society where loggers pocket millions of monies in the exchange for thriving agriculture compromised by land degradation. It causes me anxiety when I think of the current statistics that point towards 3.5B global population affected by land degradation. 100 years ago, the world had 6 trillion trees, currently, it has less than half of that.
Yes. I come from the Mt Kenya region where I am also a farmer. Climate change is affecting my farming practices directly.
CALL TO ACTION: PLANT 300,000 TREES IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS. WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION; A CALL TO EXTINCTION REBELLION.
About
My name is Generius Kimaru.
I was born and raised under the visual umbrella of Mt Kenya. The environment was green and moist. A recent revelation indicated that the glaciers at the top of MT KENYA, which once was our umbrella from where cool, transparent water cut across in streams and rivers balance out biodiversity.
What was once our pride has been exposed by human logging activities. The mountain lies in isolation, with little traces of glaciers that caused excitement to hikers and people on expedition. I am a farmer , whose products were sustained by the frequent rainfall attached to our forest cover in the Mt Kenya region.
It is this reason that I have chosen to amplify my voice to the government, policy makers, frontline communities and the wood loggers to halt the sounds of their saws and huge trucks ferrying huge loads of timber.
Would you join me in this journey?