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World governments should brace for more outbreaks of wild forest fires, environmental experts have warned.

Speaking ahead of a major summit on the environment in Nairobi, experts told world governments to consider measures to deal with fires.

The event was preceded by a ceremony by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry on Sunday that hosted a tree planting exercise at Nairobi’s City Park. Some 193 indigenous tree seedlings were planted to mark 50 years since the UN Environmental Programme was established.

The 193 trees were representative of the 193 member states of UNEP. The event preceded the five-day United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 5.2) which started yesterday and is expected to end on March 4, at the UN Complex in Nairobi.

In a report released last week in Nairobi ahead of UNEA, experts are projecting that climate change and land-use change would lead to a global increase of extreme fires of up to 14 per cent by 2030, 30 per cent by 2050 and 50 per cent by the end of the century.

“There’s a need for radical change in government spending on wildfires, shifting their investments from reaction and response to prevention and preparedness,” the report by UNEP and GRID-Arendal urges.

The report: Spreading Like Wildfire: The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires, says there is an elevated risk even for the Arctic and other regions previously unaffected by wildfires.

Though Kenya does not have a history of natural wildfires, the report says it should be wary of the changing weather landscape. “Government responses to wildfires are often putting money in the wrong place. Those emergency service workers and firefighters on the frontline need support”, said Inger Andersen, UNEP executive director.

At Nairobi’s City Park on Sunday, Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko said the exercise is in response to the report.

Clan donation

He was accompanied by Environment PS Chris Kiptoo and Chief Conservator of Forests Julius Kamau. Measuring about 90 hectares, it was the first park in the country donated for public use by a Kikuyu clan (Mbaari ya Kihara) in 1903.

“In it, Kenyans remember World War I & II veterans whose remains lie at the Commonwealth War Memorial Cemetery.

Others buried in the park include Kenya’s second Vice President Joseph Murumbi and his wife, and freedom hero Pio Gama Pinto.