Environmentalists based in the coast region have criticized the decision by President William Ruto to lift the ban on logging.
According to the environmentalists, lifting the ban on logging would accelerate deforestation and the efforts in place to conserve and preserve the environment will go to waste.
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Bosco Juma, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bigship – an environmental establishment based in Mombasa stated that effects of logging will be detrimental to the environment.
“The drop of forest covers from 30 to 10 percent which is against the law contributed to the enactment of the moratorium against logging by previous government. This was a significant effort by the government to ensure that the environment was preserved and minimize the adverse effects of climate change,” Juma said.
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“This move will retrogressively undermine the efforts made by the previous regime to protect the environment. After lifting the ban on logging, I hope the government will follow the regulations put in place so that we don’t reduce forest covers even much further,” he further noted.
As such, the environmental bodies have filed petitions concerning the logging of mature trees.
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Also Read: President Ruto Lifts Ban on Logging
Vuma Earth, an environmental establishment argued that lifting the ban will only undo all the significant progress they have made by opening these community forests to commercial and illegal logging, hell bent on clearing the forests for profit.
They directed their petition to the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate change and Forestry Soipan Tuya.
Nonetheless, as the President announced the lifting of the ban on Sunday, July 2, he argued that ban prevented wood entrepreneurs like carpenters from earning a living from locally available timber.
The move by the head of state to lift the ban on logging contradicts with government’s ambition of planting approximately 15 billion trees by 2032 to help with environmental conservation.
