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AfDB Bank to patner with Environment Ministry to support national tree planting campaign
The African Development Bank intends to patner with the Environment Ministry to support the on going national tree growing campaign.
ADB Country Manager East Africa Regional Development Nnenna Nwabufo today paid a courtesy call to Environment and Forestry Principal Secretary Dr. Chris Kiptoo to discuss on possible area of partnership in the on going campaign.
Speaking during the meeting, the PS said the ministry is seeking partnership to enable institutions with high populations, which consume a lot of wood fuel, to seek alternative sources of energy, hence to avert deforestation.
“We are exploring the options of having schools to transition to a circular economy, to transform from the use of wood fuel to biogas and briquettes” said the PS.
Kiptoo said the Ministry is already in discussion with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to enter into a financial agreement for establishment of the National Tree Growing Fund, which will seek to mobilize resources from international and local partners to support the campaign.
He informed the Country Manager that the Ministry is partnering with schools and institutions with land and water to establish tree nurseries and tree growing sites to meet the 2 billion seedling production target.
Kiptoo called on the AFD to ensure the greening of infrastructural development projects they fund saying most projects are major contributors in deforestation while they fail to replant the tree after completion of the projects.
On her part Nwabufo said the ADB projects are undertaken with cognizance of the need to streamline green infrastructure as a payback for environmental destruction and as a way of building sustainability for climate mitigation and adaptation.
She said ADB through the green growth project aims at achieving growth targets and development objectives in a more efficient, sustainable and resilient ways and that the multilateral organization will seek to identify areas of intervention.
Present during the meeting were United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Kenya Environment Team Leader Evelyn Koech, Kenya Water Towers Agency Ag Director General Prof Julius Tanui, among other technical officers.
