A race everybody can and must win
World rankings place Kenya in the "most severe" category of water poverty, and cite deforestation
as the primary cause. Already forest cover is down to just 1.7 per cent of land area and wood
consumption is estimated at 50 million trees a year. The population - and demand - will double
in the next 20 years. The only way to save existing forests is to meet demand for wood outside
forests, and to do that we need to plant 100 million trees a year - every year. The
Total Eco Challenge platforms the biggest tree- planting initiative ever seen in Kenya,
and it is beginning to work
| More than three thousand tree-growing projects have now registered with the Total Eco Challenge programme, representing every kind of organisation in every part of Kenya. Projects range from a single person to gigantic corporate initiatives and multiple community groupings. In all, more than 3 million Kenyans are actively participating. |
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And in 2009, once again the programme looks set to achieve its annual target of 100 million
trees – the number needed to ensure Kenya plants more than it chops down, and that the huge
demand for wood can be met and a healthy level of forest cover can be progressively restored. Some
of the biggest projects are run by agri-based industries with links to many thousands of outgrowers.
BAT and Brookside Dairies are especially notable, both inspiring their growers and ensuring they
have access to seedlings of the right species for woodlots, orchards and indigenous forests.
Dryland: Lomolo Primary school children in Baringo care for trees suppported by Safaricom |
An audit of BAT in 2009 shows 600,000 trees. Brookside's precise figure is not available, but their programme is designed and geared for a potential long-term total of…40 million! Safaricom assists diverse projects countrywide, and although post election disruptions halted plantings in some areas, the projects tallied more than a million trees in the past year. |
Four companies– Kenya Airways, KLM, Rolls Royce and Coca Cola - have
combined in the "Plant a Future" campaign, adding a further 240,000 indigenous
trees on the Ngong Hills and Nairobi Park.Their target is not less than 3 million.
Bamburi Cement planted more than 1.2 million trees in the year, and also
extended their programme to Uganda. Athi River Mining topped half-a-million
in Nairobi and Mombasa, working with farmers, schools, communities, municipal
councils and prisons. State organizations are also answering the call.
The Kenya Armed Forces "EnvironmentalSoldier" concept has planted 831,000 seedlings in the past year; the Kenya Airports Authority has launched an ambitious forestation plan with 512,000 plantings at Eldoret and Nairobi's JKIA; and the Administration Police in 2009 panted 10,000 trees with Unilver Tea and Oshwal Community.
Kenya's largest agricultural estates are also championing the cause. Unilever Tea Kenya's "Trees 2000" project continues both on their own land and through KTDA growers, among communities and in the Mau Forest, with seedling supply extending as far as Budalangi on the shores of Lake Victoria. Oserian Development in Naivasha also have a long-established programme and recently brought their total plantings to 4 million. Neighbouring Longonot Farm planted 248,000 in the past year.
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Endangered Prunus africana in Menegai
Meru. The rare tree has many medicinal
properties including cancer
Joining the Eco Challenge more recently, Suera Farm in Nyandarua supports
hundreds of nursery operators and schools for a combined planting of 1.8 million
seedlings this year, with special focus on indigenous species. Another newcomer
to the Challenge is African Forests at Soysambu, planting 20,000 on their own
estates and, crucially, establishing one of the largest nurseries in the Rift Valley to
ensure abundant supplies to their neighbouring region. In the business world companies
making major commitments to tree planting, with both their own project and support
of others, include Barclays Bank, Bank of Africa, EA Breweries, Del Monte,
Export Processing Zones, EA Portland Cement, Turbo Highway in Eldoret,
and more. The still untapped potential of corporate Kenya – with projects large
and small - is clearly enormous.
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Among the most enthusiastic tree planters are schools, with truly multi- purpose projects that teach children how to establish a nursery, raise seedlings and plant and care for trees, while also studying trees' medicinal properties and/or growing trees for fruit or as woodlots for the school kitchen.
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The cumulative effort of several hundred schools adds many millions of trees to the national
tally and, of course, the children take their awareness and skills back to their homes and
communities. Community Groups themselves, though often on very low budgets, make a
huge contribution with both direct planting projects and/or establishing nurseries which make
seedlings readily available to all around.
As perspective on pontential volumes, IGEA, an umbrella group for many projects in Igembe
North, facilitated planting of 698,500 trees in the year; the Good News Community
Development Centre in Huruma planted 50,000 in schools in Eastlands, BuruBuru, Umoja,
Korogocho and Pangani; Help for Self- Help planted 45,000 in Nyeri and Naro Moru; the Bulwani
group in Butula reached 35,000, the Shika Adabu Union in Likoni planted more than 22,000, and
even in the semi-arid area of Laikipia a consrvation and development initiative planted 18,000. And
then there is a final categopry nin the Eco Challenge which plants more trees than all the others put
together: individuals! Town workers, smallholder farmers, mothers, children and all are heeding the
call and planting in gardens, shambas, town commons, along roadsides and fencelines, near playing fields,
on golf courses, in factory grounds...
The enthusiasm for tree planting is shared by Kenyans of all ages and all walks of life.
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