Calls to stop amendment to forest laws intensifies

Environmentalists have intensified calls to stop amendment to forest laws that seek to repeal the Forest Conservation and Management Act 2016 that would deny Kenya Forest Service (KFS) powers on the excision of forests.

The Forest Conservation and Management Amendment Bill 2021 seeks to repeal Section 34 of the Act that protects forests from activities that may endanger any rare, threatened or endangered species.

Should Parliament approve the proposed changes, KFS will lose powers to sanction variation of boundaries or excision of a public forest.

“A petition under subsection (1) shall only be forwarded to the National Assembly on the recommendation of KFS,” section 34(2) of the Act states.

As it is currently, any petition to Parliament seeking to vary boundaries of a public forest must demonstrate that the exercise will not adversely affect its value as a water catchment area and prejudice biodiversity conservation.

Green Thinking Action Party leader Dr Isaac Kalua and Hearts of Green Organisation chairman Moses Muya say if enacted, the new Bill will expose public forests to arbitrary boundary changes and excisions, which would harm them and affect water catchment areas.

While urging Deputy National Assembly Speaker Moses Cheboi, the sponsor of the Bill, to withdraw it for the interest of Kenyans, Kalua stated that the critical ecological services and economic activities that rely on the water will suffer heavy blows if amendments are made in the Act, adding that Kenya risks sliding back to days when public forest land was subject to political impulses.

“The 2016 Act has stopped the destruction of forests as was seen in the 90s and 2000s and repealing the section will water down the gains,” Kalua said in a statement to newsrooms yesterday.

Kalua regretted that the move will jeopardise State plans to achieve 10 per cent forest cover by this year.