East Breweries Limited (EABL) in conjunction with Nature Kenya and Kenya Forest Service (KFS) joined the residents of Kieni Forest, Kiambu County in marking World Environment Day by planting 5,000 trees.
This is part of the second phase of a programme by EABL staff dubbed Kijani which has committed to plant 165,000 trees in Mount Kenya and Aberdares water towers between June 2019 and December 2020.
Kieni is one of the Community Forest Associations (CFAs) that EABL will engage in the next two years. Others areas include Hombe, Kabaru, Naro Moru, Gathiuru, Ngare Ndare, and Wanjerere, which have over 1,200 members each.
Speaking during the tree planting activity, EABL’s Sustainability Manager, Maryanne Nderu, re-affirmed KBL’s commitment to reducing environmental impact in their value chain and echoed the need for individuals to urgently take action against climate change.
“At EABL, reducing environmental impact is one of the key pillars in our elaborate sustainability strategy that’s geared towards promoting environmental conservation. We believe that reforestation will play a crucial role in reducing our carbon footprint thus curbing air pollution. Our aim in this partnership with Nature Kenya is to plant 165,000 trees in the next two years, in line with the government’s ambition to increase the country’s forest cover from the current 7 percent to 10 percent in 2022,” said Ms Nderu.
“As we celebrate this year’s World Environment Day, it is crucial that all stakeholders scale up efforts and initiatives towards cleaner air and a healthy planet. All stakeholders including the private sector, governments, industries, environmentalists and communities must come together in an effort to combat air pollution, which is one of the major causes of climate change and a threat to human health,” she added.
United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)estimates that every year, 7 million premature deaths occur as a result of air pollution.
In the last two years, in collaboration with Nature Kenya, EABL has been able to restore 250 acres of forest by planting 100,000 indigenous trees between 2017 and 2018 in the following areas: 67,000 trees in Hombe forest block; 23,000 at Kabaru Forest block; 2,000 at Naromoru Forest and 8,000 at Gathiuru Forest. In the past decade, EBL has planted and nurtured over 1 million trees, whose success rate is 85% success rate.
In addition to tree planting initiatives, KBL has also embarked on numerous other programmes that contribute to the reduction of its carbon footprint which include adopting renewable energy sources, implementing energy reduction programs and increasing energy efficiency.