World Environment Day aims to increase public awareness of deforestation, biodiversity loss, global warming, and climate change issues each year. This year’s theme was Land Restoration, Desertification, and Drought Resilience. The theme is particularly relevant to Kenya which is facing significant environmental challenges.
Land restoration is specifically aimed at rehabilitating degraded lands to restore their ecological functionality and productivity. Land degradation has been a persistent problem due to unsustainable agricultural practices, deforestation and overgrazing. The loss of fertile land reduces agricultural productivity which in turn increases food poverty. Kenya has recently embarked on the ambitious initiative to plant 15 billion trees. This massive reforestation effort is part of the broader national strategy for landscape restoration and the Nation forest programme which aims to increase forest cover, enhance biodiversity and improve land management practices. Investing in community-led projects also helps in improving degraded lands, providing better livelihoods, improve water catchment areas and enhance resilience against climate change.
A large percentage of land in Kenya is classified as arid or semi-arid making it highly vulnerable to desertification. In order to prevent this, we need to focus on stabilizing soil, reducing erosion, and improving water retention in these regions. Kenya has taken the first step to try and curb desertification by the tree planting initiative. However, we should also promote sustainable land management practices such as agroforestry, conservation tillage and water harvesting technique to employ alongside the tree planting efforts. Kenya’s goal is to promote land restoration practices which is also in line with the United Nations Environment Programme theme.
Kenya climate is occasionally marked by recurring droughts that severely affect agriculture, water resources and people’s livelihoods. Drought resilience refers to the ability of communities and ecosystems to withstand and recover from droughts. Efforts to enhance drought resilience in Kenya includes the implementation of early warning systems, development of drought resistant crop varieties and investment in water infrastructure. This year when celebrating the world environmental day, it is imperative that we note that the problems addressed in the theme are interconnected and they require integrated approaches.
The way forward to further tackle these issues would be to foster collaboration between the government, local communities and international partners in the tree planting initiative. The other option would be to invest in sustainable land management, promoting community-led conservation efforts and leveraging innovative technologies. It is also important to engage in education and awareness campaigns among local communities to enable them to adopt sustainable practices that aid in land restoration.