Kenya is eyeing Sh 1 billion for its role in offsetting an estimated 2.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

According to the Forest Status Report – 2024, the growing global interest in carbon markets presents Kenya with valuable opportunities for investors in carbon off set and reforestation projects.

The Kenya Forest Service data shows that Kenya has an estimated 6.4 million acres of gazetted public forests and 2.7 million acres forests in community land.

By conserving existing forests and promoting sustainable forest management practices, Kenya can prevent the release of stored carbon and maintain its capacity as a carbon sink.

Under the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) for international reporting, Kenya has monitored and tracked greenhouse gas emissions from the Land Use, Land- use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) sector, from 1990 to 2022.

According to the report, the process is crucial for assessing the country’s progress in reducing emissions within the sector, as well as meeting its international climate commitments.

Land use trends

Land conversions to forestland were majorly reported from cropland and grassland while conversions to cropland were mostly from forestland, wetland, and grassland with conversions from the grassland category being converted more to cropland.

On the other hand, conversions to grassland were from forestland, cropland, wetland, and other-land with conversions from forestland having the greatest contribution.

The annual emissions (in Gg CO2 equivalent) from various land-use change categories over the period from 2001 to 2022 reveal that the largest emissions stem from the conversion of forestland to cropland, followed by the conversion of forestland to grassland.

On the other hand, land-use changes involving the conversion of cropland or grassland to forestland resulted in negative emissions, underscoring their role in carbon sequestration.

Forestland that remains as forestland also contributed increasingly to emissions, particularly after 2014.

This data highlights the critical need to minimise forest conversion to cropland and grassland while promoting afforestation and reforestation activities to enhance carbon sequestration efforts.

To avert this, Kenya is actively involved in various programs and projects to restore and conserve its forests and show commitment to addressing forest degradation.

To enable this, the country has developed a Forest and Landscape Restoration Implementation Plan (FOLAREP).

This has resulted in the establishment of a National Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Strategy, 2023-2032 that aims to grow 15 billion trees by 2032, targeting the restoration of 10.6 million hectares of degraded forests and rangelands.

This effort is projected to increase the national tree cover to 30 per cent by 2032.

FOLAREP focuses on the restoration opportunities in forestlands, croplands, rangelands, and buffer zones along wetlands as well as strengthening the coordination framework and resource mobilisation for its implementation.

In a bid to involve various stakeholders in the restoration of degraded forest areas, the government launched ‘Adopt-A- Forest Initiative’ in 2015.

“Adopt-a-forest initiative” is an innovative concept that enhances the planting and growing of trees across the country.

This process involves partners adopting a portion of a forest for rehabilitation, protection, and management for three to five years. To date, KFS has entered into a framework of collaboration with over 100 partners (State and non-State actors).

This has led to a total of 54,698.68 hectares of forest areas being adopted for restoration.

To increase forest conservation efforts and further improve on the restoration efforts, the gazettement of new forest areas has been heightened: through the recent gazettement of 935,042.32 hectares of new public forest areas for the period between 2007 and 2023.

In 2023 alone, a total of 5,564.754 hectares of new forest areas have been gazetted.