18/5/23 By:Thomas Ochieng The inaugural Restoration Conference that has brought together Regional & County Directors of Environment; Regional & County Conservators of Forests; & County Governments Executives in Charge of Environment kicked off in Nairobi.
The 2 days Conference partnership with the umbrella body Council of Governors COG, KFS and Nature Conservancy Kenya is a forum to discuss Kenya’s ecosystem restoration and the 15 bn tree growing programme.
Speaking during the official opening of the conference, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Forestry Hon.Soipan Tuya called upon closer collaboration between the two levels of government in the restoration campaign and in the 15 billion tree planting campaign “We will achieve more in the effort of restoration of wetlands if national and county governments work in a collaborative manner with focus on achieving the 15 billion trees campaign in the next 10 ” Said Hon.Soipan
The CS also added that her ministry had prioritized the circular economy, restoration campaign and climate action as key focus areas.
The cabinet Secretary gave an example of wetlands restoration in South Africa that is not only acting as carbon sink and curbing global warming, the restoration programme there has created 35 thousand jobs directly.
On the issue of waste management, the Cabinet Secretary challenged Counties to develop sound waste management protocols stating that time has come for County Government to start sorting waste at the source giving an example of an Estates in Nairobi known as Nyayo estate which has started sorting waste in the eastate.
The CS thanked the Principal Secretary (PS), State Department of Environment & Climate Change Engineer Festus Ngeno and the Director General of NEMA Mr. Mamo Mamo for the commitment to converge the first restoration conference in conjunction with County government challenging the duo to strive to have quarterly such meeting going forward.
The meeting also saw Engineer Festus Ngeno a former CEC Environment Caucus chairman Emeritus hand over to the Garissa County Environment CEC Mr. Ahmed Mohammed.