Students plant threatened tree species

Project update

7 Jun

Written By International Tree Foundation

In Kenya, there are 1,100 native tree species, of which 10% are threatened with extinction. Together, with BGCI we are working with communities and partners to ensure that none of Kenya’s tree species become extinct.

Through training on threatened species and planting and propagation, we’re securing the future of Kenya’s native trees while increasing tree cover and restoring forests.

This past month, we had the pleasure of visiting Gatamaiyu Boys High School with our partners BGCI. The students were taught about threatened tree species and the importance of planting them. And they put their new knowledge into practice planting 2,000 trees together on the school grounds.

Mercy Kimani, our Kenya Programme Manger, said, “It was fantastic meeting the student and finding some environmental enthusiast and some students who were very committed to environmental conservation.

“It was very exciting we did a lot of planting. The boys were very excited. Everyone was busy planting. It was a great busy day. And because of the numbers we were able to 2,000 trees in a very short time.”

Threatened tree species training is a vital part of our forest restoration work. Mercy explains, “We have been training the communities on the importance of those threatened species. And apart from planting in the forest we are encouraging to plant in their own farms too so they do not put pressure on the old forest.”

“When so many people harvest from the same tree in the forest, they don’t take care of it. But when it’s on their own farms they take care of it and they value it. And they can plant as many as they need so they don’t over harvest.”

The project at Gatamaiyu Boys High School is just a small part of our work on mainstreaming threatened trees. There’s still much work to be done, and even more we could do at the school. “The school has enough space for expanding the project,” says Mercy. “And they want to plant a botanical garden where the student can find peace go read, or sit for their own mental health. They have set a small place called the peace corner so we would like to go back and plant some more native trees there to enrich that peace corner.”