We must take afforestation to a whole new level, starting from the arid north

Last week, Environment Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu announced the discovery of more than 250 billion cubic metres of water – enough, it was reported, to supply Kenya for 70 years.

As she was making this announcement at a Unesco meeting, scientists from all over the world converged at the World Agroforestry Centre global headquarters to discuss an emerging concept – Global Landscape Management.

If you have a piece of land, you tend to be deliberate about where on the land you will place your house, the cowshed, the sukumawiki and maize farm, the fish pond as well as the flowery lawn where you could entertain your friends with a bit of roast meat. To wit, you landscape your property.

The Global Landscape concept does the same thing – but on a global scale.

For years, we have been looking at the environment almost purely through the lens of the forest – cutting and planting of trees. Separately, we have conversations about climate change, water, agriculture, urbanisation and population growth, and we manage these elements in silos.

Scientists at ICRAF have for the past 15-20 years been mulling the idea of managing the environment comprehensively, taking into account all the factors of life.

First, it is inevitable that the global population is going to continue to grow at an alarming rate for a while. Currently, there are seven billion of us humans roaming the planet. By the year 2025, we shall hit the eight billion mark and by 2040, we shall hit the nine billion mark.
With God’s grace, and as a predominantly young country, this is within our lifetime, for some of us. As a result, the agricultural sector is going to need to increase in size and productivity so that all these people can be fed.

Secondly, it is inevitable that the majority of the world’s population will be living in urban areas – 64 per cent in the developing world by 2050, according to The Economist magazine.

Today half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. In Kenya, this is certainly true as many Kenyans begin to move from their villages and from Nairobi to the new counties. This is likely to portend 47 new cities as county headquarters.

Ultimately, all of these factors impact on the forest. The high demand for space – for subsistence and commercial farming, for building and expanding towns and infrastructure – portend a bleak future for forests, as trees are cut down far faster than they are planted. Logging, a mostly illegal business, accounts for 14 per cent of deforestation globally.

With the discovery of water up north, it is inevitable that Kenyans will start to prepare themselves to move there in droves to take advantage of the new opportunities.

Around the oil drilling we shall surely see the establishment of hotels, markets, housing estates and other businesses. The availability of water will be a major selling point for many people who would erstwhile never consider moving to the hot counties.

The discovery of the aquifer in Turkana presents us with an opportunity: As we feverishly move to make Turkana the next breadbasket for the country, and move to start building cities – after all we have oil and now we have water – let us build a forest in the northern frontier.

Let us plant vast numbers of a mixture of trees, from the indigenous which are threatened in Africa to fruit trees that children will happily feed on.

We must be aware in all of this of the impact that forests have in our life. They are “five appliances” in one: they are natural air conditioners, air purifiers, climate controls, humidifiers and water dispensers.

At the very least, planting a forest will make the hot northern frontier a much more pleasant place to live in and we shall assure ourselves of a shade under which we can enjoy that refreshing glass of water.

Mr Kags is CEO of the Goode Group ([email protected])