Tag Archives: Kenya

‘In Africa for every 28 trees cut down only one is re-planted. We believe that every time one tree gets chopped down, another tree should be planted.’ Seeds for Africa’s ‘One Tree’ campaign, is geared towards planting fruit trees to alleviate poverty and preserve the natural environment.

The campaign plants fruit trees across Africa in under-privileged schools and communities, providing training in gardening skills that bestow independence, encourage nutritious diets, and secure reliable sources of food for their future.

We have helped provide funding for 1000 fruit trees to be planted across a number of schools in the Mumias region of Western Kenya, SfA’s Agricultural Coordinator for Kenya gas carefully selected the following schools to benefit from the project. Mayoni primary school, Namulung A.C.K primary school, Mtungu primary school and Mukhweya primary school. This includes the provision of saplings, equipment, a water harvesting kit, (10,000 litre metal tank linked to schools roofs via guttering) and the training necessary to grow and sustain the fruit tree orchards.

Participants learn agricultural skills which benefit them for life, and the project provides sustainable fruit production for communities lacking in food security and quality.

The PORINI Trust’s main activities include the planting of indigenous trees in 3 key threatened forest ares of Kenya – Mt Kenya forest, Aberdare forest and Mukogongo forest areas in the Rift Valley. They also aim to protect against further destruction of the remaining forests through mobilising and facilitating communities in co-management activities.

Supporting Porini’s work in the Aberdare and Mukogongo forest areas, Restore Our Planet have funded the replanting of 300 hectares of degraded forest, with provision of over 600,000 seedlings over 5 years. We have also funded the protection of a further 900 hectares of degraded forest each year encouraging the natural regeneration of over a million more trees, and the re-establishment of areas of the forest for the benefit of the marginalised local communities.

The vital services provided by the re-established forest include the rehabilitation of local natural water resources and the stabilisation of the soil that prevent processes of desertification.

This project is a beneficiary of the Gaia/African Biodiversity Network Micro-Projects Fund.

Tharaka forest is a highly biodiverse and critical watershed area for the surrounding communities in Meru, Eastern Province, Kenya. It has been found to contain more than 30 prehistoric sites, however is being threatened due to general degradation as a result of human activity resulting from either extremely low income levels or limited transfer of community knowledge to the younger generation.

The Elders recognise these sites play a vital role for their communities and as all but one are located on river banks it will be easier to grow and maintain trees, while advocacy and lobbying work can be carried out to gain support for tree-planting in larger areas.

The project will involve organisation members, traditional elders and a youth forum. The Forestry and Environment departments will be consulted throughout the process. Activities will include community meetings, purchase and planting of indigenous tree seedlings and maintenance of trees planted.

Kibera is a township in Kenya ‘housing’ around a million people. Restore Our Planet helped fund The Kenya Trust to build two new classrooms, a small room and adjacent toilets for The Salvation Army`s school which forms part of the Community Centre in the village.

In addition Restore Our Planet’s grant also financed additional tree and shrub planting around the school that will help restore the surrounding degraded land and help encourage sustainable community resource management.

This project is a beneficiary of the Gaia/African Biodiversity Network Micro-Projects Fund.

The project will be implemented in Lara division of Kiambu district in Kenya. The target forest is the Gitoro block of Mt. Kenya forest in Meru, a section of 50 hectares. Trees will be planted on Ameru communal lands in Kamburu, Kagwe, Kagaa and Mtimbei administrative areas.

A key problem is that as elders lose respect from and commitment to the community, so the social structure for communal responsibility and environmental governance is getting weaker. Also local indigenous tree biodiversity has virtually disappeared, thereby threatening the ecological balance of the area, traditional health practices and the food security of the local communities.

However there is an ongoing `back to roots` programme which seeks to uphold inter-generational learning and there remain potent sources of knowledge on indigenous biodiversity and traditional practices. There is also a large amount of reforestable communal land containing valuable sources of water where indigenous tree nurseries can be established. To see a film made on the work of ICE click here (opens a new window).

Two-thirds of Kenya is arid, semi arid or desert, leaving one-third to support nearly 30 million people, with cash and food crops, and livestock farming. The same one-third also contains most of the national parks, wildlife habitats, and is also the setting for rapid urban development.

This pressure on land use makes Kenya very susceptible to desertification processes including deforestation and soil erosion. We are helping to fund the Green Belt Movement’s three year pilot programme supporting forest adjacent communities in the Central Province area of Kenya to rehabilitate the degraded Aberdare`s mountain range ecosystem and establish community-based natural resource management systems.

The total project aims to plant 5million trees over 5,000 hectares of degraded forest. Our funding will also help rehabilitate degraded river banks, watershed areas and farmlands in 71 sub-locations with a total population of 389,000. Improved access to food, water, fuel wood, medicinal plants and income from the sale of seedlings will benefit a further 90,000 households in the local area.