Kenya journalists plant trees to aid climate change

By Andrew Wasike.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - More than 200 journalists stayed away from work Friday to participate in a tree planting exercise organized to boost Kenya’s tree cover and fight climate change in East Africa.

Working with state-owned Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and the Kenya Environment and Science Journalists Association (KENSJA), journalist braced chilly morning rain in Ngong’ Road Forest, 14 miles (22 kilometers) west from the Central Business District in Nairobi.

Dan Kaburu an environmental reporter from K24 TV in Kenya told Anadolu Agency that, “as a journalist, I feel this is the best thing we can do apart from reporting. It is time for us journalist to also do something to protect our environment.”

“We as reporters, we have a responsibility to make sure we go back to the environment and do what needs to be done to bring it back to where it used to be,” he said.

KFS Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) Julius Kamau lauded journalists, saying, ”We as a service have come to appreciate the important role that the media plays in advancing forest conservation in this country by informing the public the perils of forest degradation as well as the benefits of sustainable forest management.”

Kamau promised more collaboration between the government and the media.

In a statement, KENSJA said, “We [journalists] are ready and will continue to partner with KFS in future tree planting and other environmental conservation efforts towards helping improve tree cover to the international levels and for the betterment of humanity.”

The Forest covers an area of 3,024 acres (1,224 hectares) located on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital.