The future's green

Think of Kenya and you’ll probably picture the classic safari landscape of wide open plains and muted, burnt shades of the savannah. But the country possesses a whole other range of natural settings, among which is lush tropical forest – and it’s this particular environment that a current project by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) is setting out to protect.

The KFS, which is responsible for ensuring the sustainable management of forestry resources across Kenya, has set in motion an ambitious tree-planting project to replenish the Mount Kenya and Aberdare Forests. Both of these forests were depleted by recent wildfires. Forested areas have been under threat more generally across East Africa by illegal logging for many years.

The planting project is part of a wider aim to increase the coverage of forest in Kenya from the current level of less than four percent to ten percent. Protecting and enhancing Kenya’s forests is an important for the safeguarding these ecosystems’ rich biodiversity and also because of the vital contribution forest resources make to people’s livelihoods and the Kenyan economy.

As well as engaging in planting tree seedlings itself, the KFS has set aside three million tree seedlings for distribution to various community groups, including schools and hospitals, to carry out their own planting projects.