Chamber Vice President Dr. Eric Ruto was a guest and speaker on Commercial Agroforestry and the role the Chamber is playing in ensuring that tree farmers are empowered and that agroforestry is practiced profitably. He pointed various challenges facing agroforestry including: the fact that the effort of tree planting outside the forest reserve has created no more than a marginal impact while deforestation has increased.

He said the Chamber  is looking forward to work with the Food and Agriculture Organization in various areas including:

  • joint trainings
  • awareness creation
  • capacity building
  • promotion of financial inclusion initiatives,
  • joint industry information sharing and research
  • joint events and strategic development programs

Ruto urged stakeholders to consider other approaches including driving plantation growth by creating regional forestry hubs, delivering the policy mechanisms and on-ground support within the hubs, reducing barriers to forestry expansion and supporting the planting of more trees and growing community understanding in forestry.