Kenya’s government needs to increase its efforts to protect the nation’s forests, according to Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.
Ms Maathai, who was awarded the prize in 2004 for her African forests work, said decades of deforestation had been a contributing factor to the current drought, which is threatening the lives of at least 2.5 million Kenyans.
She said forest depletion started during British rule, when natural forests were felled and replaced with commercial plantations. Logging, both legal and illegal, was continued by settlers and squatters after independence in 1963.
Ms Maathai said indigenous forest cover was now just 1.7%, but at least 10% was needed to secure important sectors including agriculture, water supply, hydro-power, tourism and the timber and paper industries.
