Taita; Plant a tree and have it named after you
We all want to be remembered for doing something noble of sustaining a vibrant earth for the future generation.
What better way to immortalise our names than to have them remembered for taking part in the rehabilitation of the iconic Tsavo ecosystem?
To rehabilitate and restore the degraded Tsavo ecosystem, the Taita Hills sanctuary in Taita Taveta County has invited members of the public and tourists to take part in a tree planting exercise and have their names indicated on them.
The 28,000-acre sanctuary hosts the Taita Hills Resort and Spa and Salt Lick Safari Lodges and plans to plant trees within the wildlife ecosystem in a bid to combat climate change.
After enjoying a safari experience within the sanctuary, the guests are then invited to take part in the noble exercise where their names are scribbled on locally sourced white marble stones and placed beside the tree.
The sanctuary manager Dr Jacob Ngatia said they are targeting to involve locals and tourists in the exercise.
He said the rehabilitation will help to curb the drought ravaging the Tsavo ecosystem.
"We are also encouraging our staff to adopt the programme. Each staff has planted a tree and they are taking care of them. We are working with the guests, local community and organised groups that come to help us to plant the trees," he said.
Before the rainy season kicked off in December last year, the sanctuary lost several wildlife with buffaloes, hartebeests and zebras bearing the brunt of the drought.
"The exercise also aims at mitigating against climate change and to boost the government's plan to plant over 15 billion trees in the next 10 years," he said.
So far 10,000 trees have been planted in the first phase of the initiative that started in 2010 and plans to plant 5,000 trees in the second phase which lapses in 2024.
"The first phase of this initiative to restore the sanctuary started over 10 years ago. Over the years there has been the destruction of the ecosystem caused by drought, wildfires, illegal grazing and wildlife," he said.
"We have now planted trees on a 60-acre area and in five years, we will see a considerable change. We will move to another site when we finish this second phase," he said.
The national and county governments have also started a tree-planting initiative in a bid to plant 3,000 trees every week.
The County Executive for Water, Climate Change, Environment and Natural Resources Granton Mwandawiro has launched an exercise to plant fruit trees in farms to promote agriculture and increase tree cover in the county.
Mr Mwandawiro said the project where farmers will plant fruit trees on their farms aims at enhancing the community’s agricultural production capacity and boosting nutrition.
Last year, 200 families in Wundanyi were issued with 1,000 macadamia seedlings to plant on their farms.
The programme targets to reach 773 households to plant 40,000 fruit trees in Wundanyi by 2027.
"The farmers will be planting trees in their farms, including avocado, and macadamia. This empowers communities to promote their nutrition and income," he said.
