Environment and Lands Court stops tree felling until a case filed by the Law Society of Kenya is heard and determined
A Kenyan court has ordered a 14-day stay on President Ruto’s repeal of a logging moratorium introduced in 2018 to curb the rapid disappearance of forests. photo: iStock A recent directive by the Kenyan government lifting the ban on logging has suffered a setback, in a win for conservationists.
Kenya’s Environment and Land Court (ELC) August 3, 2023 issued interim orders against the policy directive by President William Ruto in July 2023 lifting a moratorium on logging pending the hearing and determination of the case.
The court ordered a 14-day stay on President Ruto’s repeal of a logging moratorium introduced in 2018 to curb the rapid disappearance of forests.
Conservation groups like Greenpeace Africa had questioned the lifting of the logging ban in Kenya. The repeal raised concerns about the potential consequences for the environment and the long-term sustainability of the forests, the green activists said.
Read more: Kenya’s decision to lift 6-year ban on logging can be disastrous, say environmentalists
The application was filed by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) against State Law and Ministry of Environment and Forestry and others. In its petition, LSK argued that the government is endangering the balance of nature, promoting deforestation and threatening the livelihoods of communities that rely on forests for their sustenance by lifting the ban on logging.
There was no public participation while lifting the ban, LSK said. Further, the government had not provided any scientific reason, research, policy directives, environmental assessment impact in areas likely to be impacted before lifting the ban.
The order passed by Justice Oscar A Angote of the Environment and Land Court said:
Respondents to avail for inspection any policy directive that has been issued, gazette notices, environmental impact assessment reports, public participation reports and the implementation matrix of the Taskforce on Logging Activities
Justice Oscar Angote also issued conservatory orders suspending any plans by the government to re-introduce the Plantation Establishment and Livelihood Improvement Scheme (PELIS) or Shamba system, which allowed people to farm on government forests.
In addition, the court also issued a prohibition on the state from granting any licenses or permits for tree felling.
Farmers who had returned to forests to plant crops have also been affected by the court order.
PELIS is a system whereby Kenya Forest Service allows forest adjacent communities, through community forest associations the right to cultivate agricultural crops during the early stages of forest plantation establishment, according to the Kenya Forestry Research Institute. Cultivation is often allowed to continue for three to four years until the tree canopy closes.
The case is expected to be next heard on August 14, 2023.
Read more: East African oil project will disrupt ecosystems, exacerbate global climate crisis: Report
Earlier this year, Kenya faced extreme drought, leaving approximately six million people vulnerable to hunger.
An extract from the 2018 taskforce report read: “An aerial survey of Mt Kenya forests conducted in 1999 showed that 13,513 indigenous trees had been freshly illegally logged. In addition, 8,042 hectares of indigenous forest were so heavily impacted by logging that the count of individual logged trees was not possible”.
The ban on logging was implemented throughout Kenya in 2018 and was announced by former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and was designed to support water catchment areas. It was recommended by the task force on Forest Resources Management and Logging Activities.
The task force released a report April 30, 2018, stating that illegal logging of indigenous trees was a major threat to forests and that cedar was highly targeted.
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