ITF to Launch Biggest-Ever Initiative Next Week - 20M Trees for Kenya's Forests
The International Tree Foundation will launch its biggest and most ambitious campaign next week – for the planting of 20 million trees in Kenya’s Forests.
The official London launch will be held on Monday evening at the Royal Institution, Mayfair, London.
Among speakers will be the Kenyan High Commissioner, His Excellency Mr Lazarus Ombai Amayo, ITF Vice Chair, Prof Roger Leakey, and Julain Wanja, Project Manager for Mount Kenya Environmental conservation. The event will be hosted by Lucy Siegle, environmental journalist and presenter for BBC 1’s The One Show and entertainment will be provided by the London International Gospel Choir.
The 20 Million Trees initiative will be implemented in the build up to ITF’s centenary in 2014 and the first tree will be planted on April 14 to coincide with the campaign’s Nairobi launch.
The campaign is focusing on Kenya because ITF’s forerunners were founded there in 1922 by Richard St Barbe Baker and Chief Josiah Njonjo as ““Watu wa miti” in Swahili, which translates as “People of the Trees”. In 1924 Richard ‘St Barbe’ Baker founded the UK organisation as “Men of the Trees,” now the International Tree Foundation.
We will be working with several key partner organisations including Mount Kenya Environmental Conservation (MKEC), Kenya Forest Service, Kenya Forestry Research Institute and Botanical Gardens Conservation International.
Kenya’s forest cover is less than 7% and Mount Kenya Forest constitutes some of the most significant reserves of remaining forestland in the country. Mount Kenya has lost about 30% of its forest cover through various illegal activities such as timber harvesting or charcoal burning.
Since 2011 ITF has supported MKEC to plant more than 150,000 trees in Mount Kenya Forest.
The tree planting will be carried out by the volunteer members of MKEC and other community groups, who are mostly smallholder farmers committed to protecting their local environment and helping to combat climate change. They will establish nurseries and raise seedlings until they are ready to plant out in the forest. The trees planted will be indigenous trees.
Transporting millions of seedlings to deforested areas will be a huge task. The sites will also need to be visited regularly and monitored to ensure appropriate tree care and protection. MKEC will work closely with the Kenya Forestry Service to ensure that the trees flourish.
Each tree planted will save an estimated 20kg of carbon each year. 20 million trees will save an immense 400 thousand tonnes of carbon every year.
The initiative will target degraded areas in all five of Kenya’s “Water Towers,” upland forests which are the source of all Kenya’s rivers and water supplies. These are Mount Kenya, the Aberdares, Mount Elgon, the Cherangani Hills, and the Mau Complex. Kakamega Forest, Kenya’s only rainforest, will also be targeted.
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