Plant Trees To Mitigate Climate Change And Provide a Habitat For Wildlife, CS Malonza Urges – 28/4/2023

The government has called on individuals, Communities and organisations to strengthen collaboration to plant over 15 billion trees targeted across the country this season to mitigate on climate change and provide habitat for wild animals.

The Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage Peninah Malonza said the declining habitat for wildlife caused by human activities and natural occurrences remains an impediment to the sustainable conservation and management of the country’s wildlife.

Speaking at the Giraffe Centre in Lang’ata, Nairobi County, during the celebration to mark the center’s 40th anniversary Malonza said the long drought witnessed recently caused wildlife deaths and reduced the quality of wildlife habitat in protected areas and rangelands, a situation that calls for planting of more trees for restoration of the habitat.

The Cabinet Secretary said, the government was committed to partnering with communities and organisations in efforts to conserve and protect wildlife heritage. She commended the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW), an organisation that established and support the Giraffe Centre, a sanctuary for the endangered Rothschild giraffe.

The Board Chair of AFEW, Jagi said, the population of the Rothschild giraffe that now stands at over 1,300 in the wild had declined to 120 by early-1980s. Jagi said, conservation efforts by the government with partnerships such as AFEW has since witnessed the population of the species grow to over 1,300.