Ministries of Environment and Education will jointly strengthen coordination of tree-growing and seedling propagation in learning institutions.
With an estimated 17 million learners and 600,000 educators in institutions across the country, a target of growing 35 million trees and producing 300 million seedlings annually, the Ministry of Education (MoE) is one of the key drivers of the 15 billion national tree growing programme.
Cabinet Secretaries Ezekiel Machogu (Education) and Soipan Tuya (Environment) yesterday said the ministries will enhance collaboration by jointly designing innovative ways of mobilising resources for seedling production and tree growing by learning institutions, including seeking approval from National Treasury to allocate five per cent of MoE’s budget to tree growing activities.
“The two ministries will jointly strengthen coordination of tree growing and seedling propagation in schools and learning institutions by cascading coordination framework beyond focal points in the State Departments to cover County and Sub-County levels,” they said in a joint statement on the progress of national tree planning programme.
They also said they will jointly develop an award scheme for recognising best performing education institutions. The ministers said their dockets will also tap from increased Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) and donor support among other sources.
“All of us must be able to have a positive attitude of mind…once the mind is set out can anything do even what other people think is an impossibility,” said Machogu.
The 15 billion national Tree Growing Programme, is a flagship Government climate action initiative anchored by the 10-year National Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Strategy that seeks to raise Kenya’s tree cover by 17.8 per cent from the current 12.2 per cent to 30 per cent by the year 2032.
The Government seeks to restore 10.6 million hectares of degraded ecosystems and landscapes across 11 intervention areas. Since the launch of the national tree growing programme last year, they said, there has been progress including developing the National Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Strategy 2023-32.
