Lobby Calls for Shoot-down of the Proposed Forest Conservation Amendment Bill

By Shadrack Nyakoe

The Nairobi Conservancy Community Forest Associations (CFAs) is lobbying for a stop on the heated debate that seeks to amend section 34 of the Forest Conservation and Management Act (2016).

The Forest Conservation and Management Amendment Bill 2021 seeks to repeal Section 34 of the Act that protects forests from activities that may endanger any rare, threatened or endangered species.

The current Forest Act and its Section 34(2) came about after the heavy destruction of forests in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Before the bill was passed into law, there was massive excision of forest land and in 2001 it is estimated that there was unwarranted excision of over 65,000 hectares of public land in one day.

Since the introduction of the aforementioned requirements in the Forest Act of 2005 and then the Forest Conservation and Management Act of 2016, no legal excision of a public forest has taken place which has encouraged forest adjacent communities through CFAs have high regard to the national aspiration to conserve and protect forest.

The new Bill proposes to allow any person to petition the National Assembly for variations of boundaries and revocation of registration of a State forest or a portion of a public forest.

The Bill also seeks to delete Section 34(2) that compel those seeking variation of boundaries or excision of State Forest to get the agreement of the KFS.

The Friends of Karura Forest chairperson, Karanja Njoroge noted that the proposed amendment contravenes the Petitions to Parliament (Procedure) Act (2012), section 3(f) which requires that such matters should be decided by Parliament in consultation with the relevant state agency, which in such matters is the Kenya Forest Service.

“We, the Nairobi Conservancy CFAs STRONGLY OPPOSE the intended changes to the Forest Conservation and Management Act and demand that the said amendments be withdrawn forthwith for the sake of conservation of our forests and our wellbeing of our communities,” he said.

The Community Forest Conservancy chairperson Winnie Kiiru stated that the presidential directive of 10% cover will not be achieved if grabbing our forests won’t end.

“As per now the cover is only at 7.4% of Kenya’s land area, the forestry sector alone contributes some 3.6% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and directly employs some 350,000 people annually,” she said.

Emmanuel Mayiani who serves as the Loitoktok CFA chairman said that the country has committed to increase forest and tree cover through the National Determined Contribution in addition to other International Conventions and that that any possible loss in forest cover should be opposed.

“Legislations that make it easy to vary forest boundary are a danger to forest conservation in Kenya, forests play a huge role in mitigating the negative effects of climate change and reducing our vulnerability to extreme weather events, including droughts and floods. Kenya included forest protection in the 2010 Constitution to stress the socio-economic and ecological importance of forests to our well-being and economic development,” he said.

He further noted that the proposer of the amendment has not demonstrated the urgency to amend section 34 of the Forest Act and that the amendment has been proposed without public participation as enshrined in the Constitution.

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry is in the process of reviewing Forest Conservation and Management Act, 2016 and so the piecemeal amendment can wait when the stakeholders are reviewing the whole document.