Last week, on May 10, Kenya celebrated the recently inaugurated National Tree Planting Day. Government officials and the public celebrated the surprise holiday by planting trees in remembrance of over 200 victims of floods that recently ravaged the country.
President Ruto marked this special day by planting trees in Kiambicho Forest in Maragua, Murang’a County. Accompanied by the First Lady and political leaders, the Head of State pointed out that the government aimed to have 200 million trees planted that day.
Kenya held the first tree-planting holiday on November 13, last year, with the massive goal of saving the country from the adverse effects of climate change. The initiative is among the government’s efforts to improve the country’s forest cover by planting 15 billion trees planted by 2032.
The country’s forest cover declined from 8.8% to 5.9% between 1990 and 2018. The high demand for charcoal and timber contributed to unsustainable tree harvesting across the country. However, in 2021, the forest cover increased to 12.13% thanks to increased reforestation efforts and protection of the existing forest resources.
Mitigating Climate Change
The increased emphasis on tree planting comes as Kenya and the greater Horn of Africa endured a severe drought from 2020 to 2023. The prolonged drought left over 23.4 million people in the region food insecure.
Climate change poses serious threats to Kenya’s future development goals. The country’s economy is susceptible to climate change and variability because of its heavy reliance on rainfed agriculture and tourism sectors. Thus, the importance of increasing the country’s forest cover cannot be overstated.
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Kenya contributes to the annual global greenhouse gas emissions by less than 0.1%. This has not deterred the country’s commitment to cut its emissions in alignment with the Paris Agreement.
The initiative to increase forest cover offers the ideal opportunity to reduce emissions. Trees help to mitigate climate change by taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and discharging oxygen into the air through photosynthesis.
Effective collaboration among stakeholders is critical to expanding and protecting Kenya’s forest resources. If the initial goal of planting 15 billion trees in the next eight years is achieved, the current initiative would serve as an example for countries in Africa and across the world.
