State Department for Trade spearheads tree planting exercise in Irangi forest,Embu County

Staff from the State Department for Trade and its SAGAs including the Kenya National Multi Commodities Exchange (KOMEX), Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (KEPROBA), Warehouse Receipt System Council (WRSC),Kenya National Trading Corporation(KNTC)and Kenya Trade Remedies Agency (KETRA) on Friday took part in a National Tree Growing exercise at Irangi forest in Embu county.

The exercise done in collobaration with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and the local community is part of the restoration campaign to combat climate change in line with the Presidential directive of growing 15 billions trees by 2032.

The team led by Undersecretary Clement Ochola planted 20,000 tree seedlings in 20 hectares of the degraded forest.The State Department has so far planted 40,000 seedlings in the forest since the beginning of the year and plans to plant a total of 100,000 trees by end year.

County Forest Conservator Miriam Kamau said 400 out of the 500 hectares of the degraded forest have been rehabilitated through collabortaive efforts of the State Department for Trade and other stakeholders since the national tree planting exercise was launched in December 2022.

Kamau said plans are on course to rehabilitate the remaining 100 hectares and hailed the climate mitigation efforts by the State Department.