It was the beginning of the rainy season in March, and everything natural looked refreshed and full of new breath. It felt like the dry season had ‘killed’ many things, and the rains had just brought them back to life. The journey from Nanyuki to Naivasha was a scenic view of natural resources that now looked green and beautiful. Our workshop hotel venue manifested this more with the beautiful lush grass, the well-manicured lawns, the colourful and well-scented flowers, and the singing and chipping of birds, to name but a few of nature’s beauty. This transitioned into a warm welcome at the reception and a relaxed evening and night in readiness for the next day’s start of a 2-day workshop that aimed to foster dialogue and collaboration among the national and county governments, and other key Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) stakeholders, to explore, promote, and unlock the potential of public economic incentive policies for accelerating and scaling FLR in Kenya.
The workshop was organized by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry. These two institutions had invited diverse stakeholders including other government Ministries and Agencies, County Governments, international, national and local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), the academia and the private sector. With this diversity, the first day began with a meet and greet session where participants got to know each other while those who knew each other but had not met for a while reunited. The engagements were very interactive, with learnings from the presentations made, particularly from the Counties in the Greater Rift Valley (GRV) where WRI has concluded an FLR policy stock-take: Makueni, Baringo, Nyandarua and Kajiado. These were followed by question and answer sessions where participants sought clarification and better understanding. More follow-ups were made bilaterally as participants took tea during the breaks and walked on the clean, well-paved walkways for lunch.
Group work livened the discussions even more because group members could interact more closely by sharing experiences and seeking clarification on unclear issues. The workshop ended with participants identifying key policy gaps and opportunities in which policy interventions can most effectively accelerate and scale FLR efforts. What was quite outstanding in the conclusion was the acknowledgement that as much as there are many incentives in FLR, it is important to focus more on market incentives.
