Global trade in forest products showed signs of stabilisation in 2024 after a sharp downturn a year earlier, according to a report by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), but Kenyan environmental groups warn that renewed logging in key water towers could undermine long-term economic and ecological resilience.
- •In its Global Forest Products Facts and Figures 2024 report, the FAO said international trade in wood and paper products rose modestly by 1.4% in 2024 to $486 billion, recovering from a 14% contraction in 2023.
- •Production increased across most major product categories, including industrial roundwood, wood-based panels and paper, supported by gradual market recovery in several regions.
- •Kenyan environmental groups argue that global recovery in forest-based industries should not be used to justify harvesting in fragile ecosystems, particularly water towers critical to climate adaptation.
“Forests support millions of livelihoods worldwide, and the number is set to rise as forests offer more economic opportunities, including sustainable wood production,” FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said in the report.
The Green Belt Movement and Greenpeace Africa have criticised the Kenyan government’s decision to lift a logging ban in the Mau Forest Complex, one of the country’s five major water towers, warning that it threatens water security, agriculture and climate stability.
Kenya is losing an average of 84,716 hectares of forest annually to deforestation, with a further 14,934 hectares degraded each year, according to the country’s Forest Status Report 2024. The report estimates that forest loss costs the economy about Ksh 534 billion shillings (US$4.1 billion) annually in lost ecosystem services, reduced rainfall, soil erosion and declining water quality.
Environmentalists say these losses far outweigh the short-term gains from timber harvesting.
“Forests are not barriers to development, they are the foundation of water security, food production and economic resilience,” the Green Belt Movement said in a statement, adding that logging in the Mau risks destabilising rivers that feed Lake Victoria, Lake Nakuru and major irrigation systems.
The concerns come less than two years after Kenya launched a 15 Billion Tree Campaign aimed at restoring degraded landscapes and increasing tree cover by 2032. Tree cover currently stands at about 9%, below the constitutional target of 10%.
While the government has said harvesting will be limited to plantation forests, environmental groups cite past governance weaknesses, including poor oversight and illegal logging, arguing that extraction in plantations located within water towers still poses ecological risks.
