Forest Service cancels permits

• Timber industry and saw millers say up to 30,000 employees will lose their livelihood

Movement permits for forest products in 12 Rift Valley districts have been banned with immediate effect, sparking protests by timber manufacturers.

The ban by Kenya Forest Service means that timber, logs, firewood, sawdust, bark or gum cannot be removed from State and private forests in the marked districts.

The affected districts are Nakuru, Molo, Naivasha, Nakuru North, Narok, Trans Mara, Kericho, Bomet, Bureti, Koibatek, Nandi North and South Nandi.

Timber Manufacturers Association chairman Samuel Gitonga yesterday criticised the Government forester and Mau Task Force for imposing the ban.

Closed down

Mr Gitonga said that farmers established private tree plantations after the Government banned logging in State forests in 1999.

“Almost all sawmills closed down and more than 120,000 people went home in 1999. And now the remaining 30,000 employees will lose their jobs because of this recent ban,” he said.

Mr Gitonga said factories in Nakuru that use of fuel wood will have to close.

He showed the Nation an agreement saying that he bought trees from a Molo farmer two weeks ago for Sh1.7 million.

“The trees, which we had felled, will now go to waste because of the withdrawal of movement permits,” he said.

He said that the country was importing timber because of the 1999 logging ban while the price of timber has shot up from Sh8,400 per tonne of cypress in 1999 to Sh30,000 today while the price of pine has increased from Sh6,000 to Sh24,000.

Wait for years

Mr Gitonga said that because 60 per cent of the tree farms in Kenya were owned by private land owners, nobody could understand the Government decision.

“Trees are not like wheat and maize which mature in a few months. Farmers have to wait for years before they can harvest their plantations,” he said.