Makueni County is seeking to surpass the nationwide target of having 10% forest-cover by the year 2030 by engaging in an enhanced tree planting exercise that will involve all households in the county. Speaking at the inaugural Makueni County Afforestation Drive on Saturday, Principal Secretary for Planning, Dr. Julius Muia, said that the county will endeavour to surpass the nationwide target, setting an example fr the rest of the country to take up similar initiatives. “The country is supposed to achieve 10 per cent tree cover by the year 2030; but we are saying 10 per cent tree cover is not enough and we should be doing more. At Makueni, we are currently at 13 per cent tree cover but we must do more,” he said. PS Muia said the Makueni County Afforestation Drive targets to have each household in the county planting at least 20 trees in a bid to have an enhanced sustainability effort across the county and in order to enhance rainfall, flood control and the environmental conservation. The tree-planting exercise comes a week ahead of the National Tree Planting Day which will be marked on Saturday, May 12, 2018 across the country under the theme, “Panda Miti, Penda Kenya.” According to the 2018 Economic Survey Report, total forest area consisting of natural and plantation forests increased marginally from 4,185.2 thousand hectares in 2016 to 4,225.4 thousand hectares in 2017. According to the report, total area covered by forests increased marginally from 4,185.2 thousand hectares in 2016 to 4,225.4 thousand hectares in 2017. During the same period, tree planting failures and damages from forest fire resulted to loss of 2,100 hectares of forest stocks which mainly resulted from the widespread drought experienced in the country during the year.