A video posted online by a social media user showing massive tree felling in Nairobi’s Karura Forest has ignited a national conversation about the health and state of forests, logging and deforestation, their effects on climate change and the environment, and the government’s efforts to mitigate these issues.
The video touched a raw nerve among many Kenyans, who reacted by expressing distrust toward the responsible government agencies, thus contradicting their ambitious plans to conserve the ecological powerhouses that enable the country to contribute less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide (CO₂), annually, as well as provide cleaner air to breathe and purer water to drink for people and animals.
“They have determined that Kenyans will not find peace. With the legislature and judiciary under their control, nothing can stand in their way now,” a user named Rash commented.
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In light of the public outcry, the Kenya Forest Service (KFS)—the government agency that owns, manages and protects all state forests—was forced to clarify its actions in the urban forest, which mostly contains exotic trees and a few indigenous species across over 1,000 acres of prime land. “This cannot be further from the truth,” said KFS, explaining that selective logging is an example of sustainable forest management practices, entailing the removal of certain trees to preserve the balance of woodlands.
“Kenya Forest Service (KFS) would like to assure the public and visitors of Karura Forest that what is going on is a normal plantation management activity which involves harvesting of mature exotic plantation species as per the Karura Forest Participatory Forest Management Plan (PFMP) which is a legal document developed in collaboration between the KFS and the Community Forest Association (CFA), in this case, being Friends of Karura Forest (FKF),” the nation’s foremost forestry organization stated.
It added, “According to the PFMP, Karura Forest, being an urban recreational forest, would be reverted back to a purely indigenous forest through gradual removal of exotic plantation tree species that occupy some parts of the forest.”
“This programme, in fact, began over six years ago, but following the 2018 moratorium on logging in public forests, the exercise was stopped. However, following the lifting of the ban on harvesting of mature plantations, KFS has continued with the programme that will eventually see the removal of exotic species such as eucalyptus.”
Worldwide, the main criticisms launched against eucalyptus plantations in this respect are that they deplete water supplies and, on sloping catchments, they do not regulate the flow of water as effectively as the natural vegetation they sometimes replace, as eucalyptus is an invasive plant species.
Furthermore, despite their adaptation, fast growth, and greater potential for wood production than many exotic tree species, eucalyptus trees use a lot of nutrients, leading to soil exhaustion and reduction of crop yields, and their secretion of toxic allelochemicals into the soil inhibits the growth and germination of other plant species around them.
So, as climate change alters the natural world, KFS argues that a greater variety of native trees is needed to provide the foundation for the return of biodiversity because they typically provide 50% more ecosystem services than exotic species.
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