Friends of River Ezava-Forezava

When I first heard the President announce the lifting of the ban on lumbering within the Mau — a forest system that communities and rivers depend on — my stomach dropped. I am a young environmentalist who grew up close enough to a forest to know what the loss of a single mature tree can do to soil, springs and local livelihoods. In Vihiga and the Maragoli Hills we have watched degraded patches that were once living water-tanks turn brittle and thin after waves of extraction. I say this not as a partisan critic but as someone who has seen, up close, how short-term economic wins can become long-term ecological and social losses. A few realities must sit at the centre of any sober debate about reopening forest harvesting. First: Kenya is running a national push to plant 15 billion trees over the next decade — a headline ambition that has mobilised private groups, civil society and communities across the country. That commitment means nothing if it coexists with policies that make it easie...