NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 14 – The government has been urged to empower grassroots organizations actively engaging in environmental conservation activities and supporting the climate change initiative.
According to a lobby group dubbed ‘Adopt a Tree Movement,’ the government came up with an agenda to plan 15 billion trees by 2032, but failed to set strategies for how to collaborate with stakeholders at the local level.
The movement’s environmentalist Samuel Odhiambo stated that the government should provide funding and other logistical support.
“The government just rolled out the climate change program which is very ambitious, but it did not bring together all stakeholders to build the capacity through which the objective would be achieved,” he stated.
Additionally, there is a proposal that county governments should have a legislative policy through which there will be the formation of ward climate committees.
Through these committees, Odhiambo noted that it will be easy to coordinate and mobilize ground volunteers.
The Movement’s climate change ambassador Alice Wanjiru, the importance of tackling the climate which has become a global challenge.
“The continuing change in climate across the world is posing a threat to our society as a whole with no clear remedy. The effects of these weather changes are also resulting in frequent extreme droughts, floods and landslides,” she stated.
The issue of climate change is a huge monster that calls for collaboration with like-minded individuals who want to be like the little hummingbird that did what it could to try and save the forest when it caught fire.
Wanjiru aims to plant at least 10 million trees by 2027.
To achieve this and with the support of the movement, the young ambassador is now using birthday celebrations especially targeting children in a campaign that aims at recruiting as many children as can be possible to the climate change agenda.
The Ruai Sewer-line tree planting exercise was a birthday celebration for kids who celebrate their birthdays in December and January.
Over 200 kids turned up for the initiative where over 2000 trees were planted to help tackle the air pollution emanating from the sewer that serves Nairobi County as a whole.
“Many a times trees are planted but they are not taken care of. This is one area that the government and all people who are planting trees must be keen to change if we have to achieve the climate change agenda,” she warns.
