State:Lift on 6 year ban on logging,promises return of Rai Plywoods Ltd
A section of Rai Plywoods employees at the Uasin Gishu Labour offices,The employees have decried salary delays/Photo Allan Onyango
The government will lift a ban on logging in public and community forests in July, imposed six years ago, Forestry Permanent Secretary Kimotho Kimani has announced.
Kimani said the move will now allow licenced saw millers across the country to resume their business of harvesting mature trees from the forest.
“The government will in July lift a moratorium on logging in public forests across the country to allow for harvesting and disposal of mature trees and even those that have over matured,”assured Kimotho.
Speaking in Eldoret during the launch of a greening programme in TVET institutions in an event held at The Eldoret National Polytechnic in Uasin Gishu County, Kimotho said the government will come up with a policy on how the harvesting will be done.
He said that 2.9 million tree seeds will be distributed to 100 Tvet institutions in North Rift, Nyanza and Western region for plantation to help the government meet the target of 5 billion this season.
“We shall come up with a policy on how the harvesting of mature and overgrown tree plantations will be done in public and community forests before July when saw millers shall start engaging in the
business with the government,” said Kimotho.
According to the PS, the harvesting of trees in the public forests shall be done in an open and transparent and accountable manner to ensure value for money.
The government imposed a moratorium on logging in public and community forests six years ago with the aim of protecting the existing forests as the country eyed to achieve 10 percent forest cover.
The lifting of logging ban will be a major relief to Saw millers and timber merchants in the country who had complained that the ban had caused massive job losses in the once lucrative sector.
Since the ban on logging in all public and community forest came into effect, wood has been scarce, thus causing a ripple effect on the construction industry in the country.
Rai Plywoods Kenya Ltd has since retrenched over 2,000 employees and closed down the company’s Plywood and block board lines due to the ban on logging.
The company in the recent past has experienced financial constraints that has seen the remaining 300 workers go on months without salaries.
The Lift on ban will see the company’s machines roaring once again, and perhaps more employees could find their way back into the company.
The ban on logging has so far caused the government to lose billions of shillings even as it emerged that Kenya Forestry Service is yet to settle a pending bill of Sh4 billion of unremitted tax claims
to Kenya Revenue Authority from the sale of timber products.
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