The Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources has appointed Act! Climate Change Program Officer Mr Benjamin Kiuru to be part of the 14 member Technical Committee that is charged with reviewing the current Charcoal Rules and Regulations (2009) so as to align them with the Constitution of 2010.
In the last one year, Act! has supported Green Africa Foundation (GAF),a local non governmental organization under the Changieni Rasili Mali Facility (CRM), to lobby for the review of the Charcoal Rules and Regulations in line with the Facility’s proposed interventions in the Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) report. Speaking during the official opening of a Stakeholders Workshop organized by the Green Africa Foundation on the current charcoal rules and regulations, the Principal Secretary in the State Department of Environment and Natural Resources Dr. Richard Lesiyampe called for the formation of a committee comprising of stakeholders from civil society organizations, representatives of county governments and line Ministries to review the charcoal guidelines in order to ensure charcoal producers run sustainable enterprises that promote conservation and reforestation of Kenya’s natural resources.
The Committee will operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment Water and Natural Resources and will bring on board all counties that are charcoal hotspots. Some of the areas the Committee will look into are the import and export of charcoal, weights at the point of sale, and the environmental impact assessment. Act! support to Green Africa Foundation has so far seen enactment of laws in Counties such as Kitui and Tharaka Nithi to manage the charcoal business and ensure use of innovative technologies that are less harmful to the environment.
