President Uhuru Kenyatta has reaffirmed his commitment to the conservation of biodiversity saying it is integral to the realization of sustainable development.

The President said he is keen to ensure the measures taken by the Government towards achieving a minimum of 10 per cent forest cover by 2022 succeed.

“We cannot achieve sustainable development without making deliberate efforts to conserve nature,” the Head of State said.

President Kenyatta was speaking this evening when he held talks with the President of the Geneva-based World Wide Fund (WWF) Mr Pavan Sukhdev, who paid him a courtesy call at State House, Nairobi.

Mr Sukhdev urged President Kenyatta to champion the agenda of promoting conservation as an aspect of protecting biodiversity and the wellbeing of people.

President Kenyatta agreed to a request by the leader of the global conservation body to spearhead the conservation narrative at the United Nations General Assembly in September this year and also at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that will be held in Rwanda in 2020.

During the meeting, Mr Sukhdev briefed the Head of State on the WWF’s conservation programmes in over 100 countries across the world, emphasizing the importance of preserving nature for posterity.