Deforestation Costing Kenyan Economy Millions of Dollars Each Year

However, the report finds that there is a great deal of room for more activities, and makes the following recommendations:

• Sustainable Forest Management contributes to national development with a ratio of more than four times that of the poor forest management that leads to deforestation, and should be incorporated. Sustainable actions include:

• Ensure that Kenya has in place a fully functioning forest resource account in order to capture the various benefits provided by forests;
• Stronger regulation of forest use. For instance, the enacting of farm forestry, forest harvesting and charcoal regulations in 2009 represent an important step in the right direction and needs to be pursued;
• Encourage investment in the forestry sector in order to increase the efficiency in production, especially in sawn timber and charcoal production;
• Address the growing trend of dependence on imports of forest products, which constituted more than 50 per cent of domestic output for the year 2009;
• Ensure adequate regeneration after harvest and an increased forest plantation growth in the long term, together with a better coordination of regulating institutions, producers and consumers of forest products;
• Mainstream instruments and incentives such as payment for ecosystem services, trading and insurance schemes.

Forests in Kenya also represent a great opportunity in terms of carbon storage and the use of carbon trading schemes, the report found.

The economic analysis also lends weight to the Inclusive Wealth Index, a joint initiative by the United Nations University International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (UNU-IHDP) and UNEP.

The Index, launched at Rio+20, is a new indicator which looks beyond GDP to include natural and human capital, thus, encouraging governments to implement policies that encourage sustainable use of natural resources.

Source: UNEP.