Green Blue Africa seeks to plan a million trees in Kenya
Green Blue Africa Foundation (GBFA) has launched an initiative to plant one million trees in Kenya.
The Foundation says it will initially target to plant about 10,000 trees in each of the 47 counties in the country.
This exercise, GBFA says will aim in promoting peace ahead of the political season.
“This tree planting is about the restoration of degraded lands, including forests. We are planting trees for peace,” said Prof. Mbaabu Mathiu, the Foundation’s Chief Executive.
GBFA has also partnered with Nation Media Group and other stakeholders to celebrate World Environment Day on June 5, 2022.
The theme of this year’s celebration is to live sustainably in harmony with nature and the possibility of shifting to a greener lifestyle by making green choices.
“This is also a pre-event to the upcoming World Environment Day. On that day we will have a walk from Ngong to Corner Baridi.”
Mathiw also stressed the need to sensitize creation among citizens on how to restore greener ecosystems.
“The whole idea is to raise awareness for Kenyans to know about restoration and the need for each citizen to actually participate and engage in environmental restoration. The environment underpins all that we do including our livelihoods,” he remarked.
To achieve the objectives of World Environment Day, there will be a 12km walk from Ngong town to Corner Baridi.
Philip Mclaud, Team Environment Kenya Chief Executive stated the initiative is meant to encourage peace and environmental conservation among the youth, adding that the brand ambassador, Ferdinand Omanyala being the face of the organization will indeed keep inspiring more young people to push for the initiative to conserve the environment.
“We are Team Environment Kenya, we are the National Environment and Conservation movement, the trendsetter movement on a mission to keep Kenya breathing. In partnership with Green Blue Africa Foundation we have collaborated to commemorate the International Women’s Day for peace,” said Mr. Mclaud.
“On this day we are launching one million trees for peace initiative that we want to conduct in all the 47 counties. In Nairobi and Kajiado, GBFA gave us a place where we are able to plant 1000 trees today. We are not only planting trees for conservation but we are preaching peace,” he added.
It being a peace initiative, the Team Environment for Kenya Director Mathew Ochanda also noted that the youth will be given an opportunity to take part in something that is constructive to their livelihoods and the country’s well being at large.
“As we are nearing the electioneering period, we as youth are engaging ourselves in a positive way to have the initiative of planting trees. One million is our projection to have every youth, elderly, political and community leader plant a tree as their commitment to upholding the peace before, during and after elections,” he concluded.
In attendance were representatives from all the 47 counties who took part in the tree planting process as they each got to plant a tree at Corner Baridi.