The declaration of the year 2011 is the International Year of Forests has brought to the fore the importance of forests. Kenya is indeed, endowed with various types of forests. However, the country has seen this resource decline rapidly to fall to less than 2% which is way below the 10% threshold. The major cause of this is weak governance at the legal, policy and institutional levels. This is evident in the lack of regulations and guidelines to operationalize of the Forest Act, 2005, Institutional conflicts arising from overlapping mandates jeopardizing effective enforcement, and the lack of adequate capacity to name a few.
Mr. Gideon Gathaara opening the event.
It is against this backdrop that ILEG organized this workshop which brought together 53 participants from various government departments and institutions e.g. NEMA, KFS, KWS, KEFRI, WARMA, Judiciary, State Law Office etc.; non-governmental organizations e.g. WWF-EARPO, etc. and media representatives.
The Forest Law Enforcement and Compliance Workshop was held between the 21st to 24thJune 2011, at the Mombasa Continental Hotel. The workshop, whose theme was “Conserving Our Forests Demands Thinking Beyond Planting Trees” was organised under ILEG’s Beyond Planting Trees Project with the kind support of the Embassy of Finland.
The objectives of the workshop were to:
- Facilitate dialogue among the various institutions involved in forest governance for sustainable forest management to address the conflicts within the various statutes and implementing agencies;
- Contribute towards creating awareness on environmental governance within the new Constitution, assessing the opportunities, challenges and the impacts on the forestry sector; and,
- Improve the effectiveness of the investigations and prosecution process of forest crimes through training on forest laws and evidence collection.
The overall objective of the workshop was to strengthen government’s ability to enforce environmental laws relating to the forestry sector in order to enhance effective forest law enforcement and compliance in Kenya.
The workshop was officially opened and closed by Mr. Gideon Gathaara, the Conservation Secretary, Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife. Other keynote speakers were Mr. Julius Kamau from the Embassy of Finland and Mr. Maurice Makoloo, Director at Institute for Law and Environmental Governance (ILEG). The various sessions were facilitated by key resource persons from various sectors with practical experience in forest law enforcement and governance.
During workshop, the key topics covered included the following:
- Forest Sector Under the New Constitution: Institutions and Governance
- Challenges Facing Forest Law Enforcement & Compliance: Legal, Governance and Institutional issues
- Enforcement of Forest Law Through Courts
- Challenges Facing Forest Law Enforcement and Compliance: Practice and Practical Issues
- Towards better interagency cooperation & harmony in forest governance and enforcement.
The workshop report containing the proceedings contains plenary sessions and panel discussion is available from our offices.
