The Kenyan government on Monday described as regrettable the degradation of the country's environment through human activities and called for concerted effort to reverse the trend.

Kenyan Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka said urgent measures, among them, the application of the law, the sensitization of the communities, tree planting and protection of all catchment areas from human encroachment needed to be taken, if the looming disaster is to be averted.

"The regrettable scenario that we have only 1.7 million hectares under tree calls for concerted efforts by all Kenyans to reverse the looming disaster, particularly in the five major catchment areas of the Mau Complex, Mt. Kenya, Aberdare ranges, Mt. Elgon and the Cherang??ni hills," he said.

In a speech read on his behalf by Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Beatrice Kones, during a tree planting exercise for the ministry's staff at Ngong Hills, about 40 km north of Nairobi, Musyoka said every Kenyan should embark on planting trees, in a bid to increase the forest cover of two percent to the internationally recommended 10 percent.

During the exercise, over 5,000 trees were planted on five hectares. The vice president also called for an agreeable solution to the squatter problem in the country's forests as one way of reducing overexploitation of the resources.

"Illegal logging, charcoal production and uncontrolled grazing of animals among other activities have been identified as some of the human activities that continue to destroy our forests," Musyoka noted.

The vice president said the tree planting exercise demonstrated the government's commitment to restoring the country's lost forests, adding that it would utilize the youth through the "Kazi kwa Vijana" initiative.

 Dr. Ludeki Chweya called on Kenyans to support the government's efforts to conserve the country's natural resources and the environment. He said if the destruction of the environment is not stopped, it will adversely affect the socioeconomic lives of Kenyans.

"Time has come for us to take necessary steps to protect the environment from the effects of climate change," said Chweya.