Logging activity resumes in forests after ban was lifted

Close to a month after President William Ruto announced the lifting of the moratorium on logging and the power saw is already at work, felling trees and clearing plantations that have reached the rotation age. A spot check by citizen tv in a number of forests in the north rift reveal an exercise that commenced in earnest following the president’s directive with saw millers rushing to beat the 45 days harvesting period given by the Kenya Forest Services. From small to large players in the sector, the lifting of the moratorium was an answered prayer as they had to depend on imports and reserves in private farms for the last five years. But amidst the bumper harvest for the saw millers, concerns have been raised by environmentalists who argue that it was wrong to allow logging before fully implementing recommendations by the task force on forest resources management and logging activities in the country.