Our Mandate

Established in 1986 under an act of parliament, the Nyayo Tea Zones Development Corporation (NTZDC) is a state corporation via legal gazette No. 265 with its core mandate being conservation through managing zones of tea belts around the forest.

This has been achieved through the establishment of tea and assorted tree buffer belts around those forests.

The core mandate of Nyayo Tea Zones Development Corporation is conservation of gazetted forests and trust lands and protection of the environment through the establishment of tea and assorted tree buffer belts.

Nyayo Tea Zones Development Corporation at inception was mandated to:

Establish, manage and develop tea and fuel wood plantations and indigenous trees;
Establish and manage nurseries for propagation of tea and tree seedlings
Establish, manage and maintain tea processing factories and process tea.
Construct and maintain rural access roads, offices and green leaf collection centres.
Transport, lease, sell or market in Kenya or outside Kenya any tea, wood or other products
produced or processed by the Corporation or its agents.

Towards achieving its mandate, the Corporation has established 945 km of buffer belts (530 km of tree and 415 km of tea) around 9 gazetted forest blocks across the country that act as continuous belts to curb human encroachment into the forests.

The buffer is a unique and innovative concept that solves problems of human encroachment on forests, leading to harmonious coexistence between agricultural activities, conservation and communities living adjacent to the forests within the 19 gazetted forest areas in the 8 zones, where over 9,390 hectares have been planted with tea and different tree species.

Protection and conservation of forests, rehabilitation of ecologically fragile areas by planting tea, indigenous trees, fuelwood plantations and other suitable tree crops on buffer zones