Gabon has dominated news lately due to the coup that toppled former President Ali Bongo. And for me, Gabon should also be in the news for a much better, nay greener reason – its 88 percent forest cover! This makes Gabon one of the most forested countries in the world and proves that Kenya too can realize a forty percent tree cover by 2035. As we celebrated the annual Plant Your Age Day on 14th September 2023, our team demonstrated how to practically achieve this tree revolution.
Our first tool for executing this tree revolution is our demographics. Each of Kenya’s 55.3 million people should be supported and nudged to be a tree warrior who fights tooth and nail for a rapid, sustainable tree cover expansion. Accordingly, just like in Sun Tzu’s Art of War, ‘victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.’ In this context, ‘winning’ first means having a revolutionary, winning mindset and strategy.
Kenya’s median age is 19.6 years. If every Kenyan pledged to plant an average of 19.6 trees annually, we would end up with 1.08 billion trees annually. In just seven years, this tree revolution would deliver 7.5 billion trees. But for that to happen, all the tree warriors would have to shift their mindset from mere tree planting to tree growing. While tree planting simply places a seedling into the soil and forgets about it, tree growing nurtures that seedling to full maturity.
If we embrace this challenge, Kenya will become a green beacon of hope that could trigger a green revolution across Africa! That way, Africa’s own forest cover can eventually grow from the current 22.7% to at least 40%!
Our second tool for executing a tree revolution is our private sector. Yes, our businesses, as well as learning institutions, faith-based institutions, and non-profit organizations, can play a lead role in growing trees across Kenya.
For instance, Safaricom has a market capitalization of KES 621 billion, which makes it East and Central Africa’s most valuable company. The company has an extensive, active subscriber base of 46 million people. If just half of these subscribers were incentivized to plant trees equivalent to their ages, every year, that would amount to 3.75 billion new trees within just seven years! Safaricom can become a corporate tree warrior through discounted airtime or internet bundles.
In the same vein, a bank such as KCB could follow suit by turning its 28.9 million customers into tree warriors. The goal would be for half of these customers to grow trees equivalent to the average Kenyan age of 19.6 years, for seven successive years. This would add 2.37 billion trees to Kenya’s landscape. Here the incentives could include discounted bank charges and corporate social investment programs.
Oil marketers too can support this cause, as major stakeholders in the climate change conversation. Vivo Oil for instance could decide that for every two litres of oil imported, a tree seedling costing about Kshs 30 is planted. Out of their estimated 1.3 billion litres per year per year they would plant 650 million trees annually. After seven years, Vivo could contribute to the earth’s lungs with 4.55 billion trees. A green signature that could be sealed through discounted oil pump prices.
In the non-profit sector, an international organization such as the World Vision could integrate tree growing into existing programs so that the 3.1 million people in its sphere of work plant trees equivalent to their ages. This would result in 425.32 million trees planted over seven years. Similarly, embassies in Kenya could rally the estimated 1.5 million foreigners to plant 19.6 trees per person, then we would achieve 205.6 million trees in seven years.
These simple yet practical structured steps demonstrate a possibility of growing 18.8 billion trees in seven years. This would seal Kenya’s emerging role as a veritable leader in greening the earth. The secret lies in turning our ages into annual tree growing targets. Think green, act green!
