A pupil of the St Catherine special school for the mentally handicapped in Butula district, plants a tree seedling. Photo | West Fm

As the world gears up to celebrate the World Environment Day (WED) on 5th June, The Kenya Forest Service (KFS) has put in place measures to ensure that Kenya meets its target of attaining environment sustainability while at the same time alleviating the economic status of individuals as they take up tree planting as a commercial venture.

Focus has been shifted once again to the achievements and challenges that Kenya as a country has experienced with the theme for this year’s celebrations which is; ‘Green Economy: does it include you?’ capturing the critical role of a clean environment to the stimulation of economic development.

“Forests offer a unique opportunity in the advancement of the green economy with their many benefits to mankind. Not only are they sources of food, medicine, fodder and fuel wood at the subsistence level, are they also players in any country’s development because they provide raw materials for the wood industry. They also act as catchments for water which is used for energy production, agriculture and tourism, all major drivers of the economy,” Kenya forest service.

According to the service, the issue of carbon footprints has brought about the promotion of tree planting and forest conservation for carbon sequestration. Carbon markets have emerged where individual land owners, communities and even institutions are being encouraged to plant trees and in return are paid a fee.

Kenya Forest Service has revealed that Kenyans stand to benefit given the abundance of land saying that It should be noted that Kenya whose forest cover stands at about 5.9% has identified environmental sustainability and particularly increasing the tree cover as one of its socio-economic growth pillars that is meant to make her a middle income country by the year 2030. “