Visiting World wide Fund for nature (WWF) Director General, Jan Leape has called on both the private sector and government to boost forests and woodlands conservation as part of the global agenda for sustainable development. Jan Leape was speaking at a cocktail party hosted for him by Bamburi Cement in Mombasa after touring Haller Park, Bamburi’s wastelands rehabilitation showcase. He suggested that Kenya and other African countries risked backsliding on the achievement of sustainable development in the absence of a healthy forests and woodlands resource base to sustain social and economic development. "There is urgent need for the private sector and government to come up with afforestation programmes to turn the tide" said Leape.

Lafarge, Bamburi’s parent company has along standing partnership with WWF at the global scale with local implementation of the global partnership focusing on forest landscape restoration (quarry rehabilitation and biodiversity conservation; environmental awareness campaigns and environmental standards for the cement industry in East Africa. "As a business heavily dependent on quarrying activities, we invest heavily in environmental conservation as it impacts on the long term sustainability of our business and communities socially and economically," said David Njoroge, Bamburi’s Corporate Affairs Director.   Njoroge said Bamburi was working with WWF and other community based organizations in Shimba Hills Forest in a landscape restoration project that aims to protect the original forest which is one of the main seed sources for indigenous trees used by Bamburi in its quarry rehabilitation process.