The government wants every village in the country to grow at least 1,000 trees a month, as it hands village elders a central role in its 15 billion trees campaign in a bid to plant more than one billion trees a year.

Felix Kisalu, director of the National 15 Billion Tree Growing Programme under the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, said the aim is to "make it a community responsibility" rather than leave it to government agencies, The Star reported on Monday.

"However small, every tree counts. Even five trees count," he said.

Two billion down, 13 billion to go

The programme, also known as Mission 15B, runs from 2023 to 2032. It aims to restore 10.6 million hectares of degraded land and raise the country's tree cover to 30 per cent.

Kisalu said about two billion trees have been planted so far. Nation reported last month that the count stood at about 2.2 billion, or roughly 14.7 per cent of the target.

The government believes community mobilisation could help it "achieve the 15 billion trees in a shorter time than anticipated," Kisalu said.

Kenya has about 10 million hectares of degraded ecosystems that need restoring. The Kenya Forest Service's 2021 national forest assessment put tree cover at 7.18 million hectares, or 12.13 per cent of land area, and forest cover at 5.23 million hectares, or 8.83 per cent.

Elders already at work

Village elders were the biggest single group in this year's Mazingira Day drive in October, when each of the country's 77,252 villages was asked to plant 100 trees. Interior PS Raymond Omollo later said the elders had planted 7.7 million trees across more than 77,000 villages.

Under the expanded plan, Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries have each been assigned specific ecosystems to adopt. The approach is now being pushed down to middle-level and community leaders, including teachers and bank managers.

Every tree to be counted

To track progress, the ministry is using a mobile platform that lets Kenyans log the trees they plant. Kisalu said "every tree planted in this country is recorded and georeferenced," allowing officials to follow species, locations and survival rates.

The JazaMiti app, developed with the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, was used for geotagging and counting during the Mazingira Day exercise.

Why it matters

Survival of seedlings has been the biggest criticism of mass tree planting drives in Kenya, with many planted trees dying in the first dry season. Officials say the digital records and community ownership through elders should help show not only how many trees go into the ground, but how many survive.

The push comes as the short rains continue across most of the country, a period the ministry considers ideal for planting.

Photos: The Star (tree growing exercise); Citizen Digital (Ministry of Environment 15 billion trees briefing). Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.