Tree survival takes focus as PS Mugambi projects Sh450bn will reach communities

A tree-growing initiative during a previous Mazingira Day, as communities took part in Kenya’s national tree-growing and landscape restoration efforts. [Courtesy]

Kenya’s 15 billion trees campaign is putting survival ahead of planting numbers as the country seeks to restore millions of hectares of degraded land.

The shift comes under a five-year partnership between the State Department for Forestry and the World Wide Fund for Nature Kenya (WWF-Kenya) to support landscape restoration, community livelihoods and public participation in the tree-growing programme.

WWF-Kenya will provide the 15 Billion Trees Secretariat with technical, advocacy and communication support.

It will also work with public and private sector partners to replicate restoration models in priority landscapes.

“We do not just plant trees; we grow them. Survival rate is our true measure of success,” said WWF-Kenya CEO Jackson Kiplagat.

Forestry Principal Secretary Gitonga Mugambi explained that the Government tracks tree-growing progress across all 47 counties through the JazaMiti platform.

He noted that the focus is on nurturing trees to maturity rather than counting seedlings alone.

Kenya’s forest cover stands at 8.8 per cent against a target of 30 per cent by 2032. Mugambi said forest cover fell from 12 per cent between 1990 and 2010 to six per cent before recovering to the current level.

The 15 billion trees target forms part of efforts to restore 10.6 million hectares of degraded land under the National Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Strategy (2023–2032).

The partnership will continue WWF-Kenya’s #KeepKenyaBreathing platform alongside the 15 Billion Trees Secretariat. Launched in 2018, the platform allows companies, schools and individuals to grow trees and participate in restoration efforts.

More than 3.06 million tree seedlings grown by citizens and companies have been mapped through the platform across at least 25 counties, including Elgeyo-Marakwet, Lamu, Narok, Kwale and Nairobi.

WWF-Kenya aims to mobilise public and private resources to grow one billion trees across its priority landscapes.

The Kaptagat Integrated Conservation Programme will guide the wider approach. WWF-Kenya has run the programme since 2020 across 26,902 hectares in six forest blocks in the Northern Mau ecosystem.

The programme has restored more than 2,700 hectares of forestland, with more than 1.8 million seedlings planted.

It combines restoration with community livelihood programmes covering household income, clean energy, clean water and healthy landscapes.

The Etio and Yogot dams constructed under the programme provide water to 15,000 farmers and have created 2,000 direct jobs.

Farmers have also received 95 cross-breed heifers, beehives and high-value cash crops as part of the programme.

“Kaptagat shows communities must benefit from restoration,” Kiplagat noted.

Mugambi said more than Sh450 billion would reach local communities through seedling production, commercial nurseries and restoration enterprises.

The programme is expected to create jobs for young people and women while supporting water and food security and green growth.

Mugambi called on state and non-state actors, companies and citizens to adopt landscapes and grow trees as part of Kenya’s climate resilience efforts.

Kiplagat urged companies to move beyond single planting days and invest in landscapes and community livelihoods.