Environment Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya has said that the state plans to fence all gazetted forests in the country.
She said this will help safeguard the forests from encroachment and other destructive human activities.
Speaking in Marsabit on Wednesday, Tuya said the fencing will also help sustain the gains made through ecosystem restoration efforts such as the 15 billion national tree growing programme.
"The first thing we've done as a ministry is to map all forests across Kenya. We're looking for partners to back up government funding for fencing of all forests across the country," she said.
The CS also appealed to forest-adjacent communities to participate more actively in conservation activities, saying that the government cannot succeed in its ecosystem restoration efforts without their support.
"I know we won't succeed without collaboration and good relations with communities. We must collaborate. You are our eyes. You're the owners of the environment."
She said the government had mounted a major crackdown on logging and all forms of illegal forest activities starting in the Mau forest complex.
Tuya said the same would be employed in other forest ecosystems across the country.
She warned that government cannot continue to employ more rangers and then have more illegal forest activities.
"People who imagine that our forests are available for encroachment should forget it. We have started an operation in Mau, a place called Sururu and we will go to all forests," CS Tuya said.
"We can't be pushing for the growing of 15 billion trees while at the same time losing more trees to illegal activities. We can't be engaged in a zero-sum game."
Tuya noted that her ministry is working with Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) to produce enough seeds to support the initiative.
She said the ministry through KFS is also in the process of recruiting youth to participate in the 15 billion national tree initiative through a programme dubbed 'green army'.
On wetlands conservation, CS Tuya said the government was keen on mapping and fencing wetlands across the country so as to use their water for all-year tree-growing activities.