Kenya Forest Service sounds the alarm over rising fire incidents

The Forest Act 2005 of Kenya says it is against the law to practice charcoal burning in the forests and specifies measures to be followed in acquiring the licenses for burning charcoal on private farms, community forests and trust land.

Between December 2010 and January 2011, which is a dry season, the forests of Kenya caught fire and the affected include those in Mount Kenya, Nairobi, Busia, Meru, Mount Elgon, and Nakuru.The season started from February 1 to the start of the wet season because of charcoal burning and farming and was named by the Kenya Forest Service the National Fire Season

Each year, during the dry season which is in January to March and August to September, Kenya gets forest fires therefore burning about 10,000 and 20,000 acres of forests. For this year’s dry season, the country has lost 75 acres of forests and more forest fires are expected to happen in the future so KFS is telling the communities to corporate so that the fires can be stopped. The organization will work together with the registered companies to train people, on detecting, preventing the fire outbreaks.2, 500 workers have been allocated in the forests each protecting 700 acres of forest though they are not enough because the budget is low.

The director of KFS, David Mbugua, said the fires were only caused by the man activities in or near the forests not by storms like in Europe. The organization announced the burning of the plant life in the forests or near the forest is against the law and to stop more fires, KFS is expecting the communities to stop carrying out the illegal activities near or in the forests to control the fires in the forests.

David Mbugua, the director of KFS said people carry out a lot of activities in and near the forests that’s why there has been a number of fire outbreaks in Kenya’s forests and the only way to stop the fires is buy stopping the unlawful activities.

KENYA SAFARI NEWS