Policies & Legal Framework

Forest Policies

Milestones in forest policy

• 1957: the first formal Forest Policy, focused on forests on public land, without stakeholder participation.
• 1968: revised as Sessional Paper No. 1 of 1968, supported by the Forest Act Cap 385 of 1969.
• Mid-1990s: revised policy and legislation prepared, leading to the Forest Act No. 7 of 2005 (the policy itself was not debated).
• 2014: a new Forest Policy to align forestry with the Constitution of Kenya 2010, Vision 2030, the land and environment framework and devolved government, strengthening governance and public and private participation.

National Forest Programme 2016–2030 and policies and measures (PaMs)

Until the National REDD+ Strategy is finalised (it was under formulation in February 2021), the programme strategies of the National Forest Programme (NFP) 2016–2030 serve as provisional PaMs monitoring items. The NFP has 8 thematic clusters and 25 programmes with 116 programme strategies, of which 38 relate to REDD+ and are given priority for monitoring (see MRV & Climate › REDD+ › REDD+ Monitoring).

• 1. Forest productivity
• 2. Forest governance
• 3. Natural forest management and Conservation
• 4. Forest for water
• 5. Forest for energy
• 6. Forestry education, training and Research
• 7. Forest and climate change
• 8. Forest financing

Kenya Forest Service Strategic Plan 2023–2027

KFS's fourth strategic plan follows the fifth-generation planning guidelines of the State Department for Economic Planning. It is aligned with the Constitution (Article 69: at least 10% tree cover), Vision 2030 and its Fourth Medium Term Plan (2023–2027), the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda, the Forest Policy, the National Forest Programme 2016–2030 and the National Strategy for achieving 30% tree cover by 2032.

• KFS Strategic Plan 2023–2027 (PDF, 18 MB)

  Mandate, vision, key result areas, implementation matrix, financing and monitoring framework.