WRC Safari Rally plant 500 trees at Kasarani
WRC Safari Rally Event Secretary Helen Shiri (left) with Joel Muchiri (Service Park Manager), Sangita Gohil, her racing son Neel Gohil and Sports Kenya staffer Diana Mueni planting trees at the Kasarani Triple S on November 13, 2023 to mark the National Tree Planting Day.
What you need to know:
- WRC Safari Rally Greening Legacy Project remains on course to plant 19 million trees to signify the 19 years the Safari Rally was out of the World Rally Championship (2003-2020).
- The Green Legacy Project is also meant to showcase Kenya's commitment towards the United Nations Climate Action plan, the project's coordinator Ivy Kaburu said.
WRC Safari Rally Kenya staff celebrated the national tree planting exercise at the windswept Kasarani Super Special Stage (Triple S), dominated by a mass of barren land bordering Santon, Kasarani and Mwiki concrete jungle estates in the outskirts of Nairobi.
They planted 500 seedlings as part of the 8 million trees already planted through the organisation’s Green Legacy Project over the last three years.
The Kasarani Triple S is the first competitive stage of the WRC Safari Rally, and it is part of the Moi International Sports Complex ecosystem where the government and the WRC have been conducting tree-planting exercises for the last three years. Tree have also been planted in other parts of the country.
WRC Safari Rally Greening Legacy Project remains on course to plant 19 million trees to signify the 19 years the Safari Rally was out of the World Rally Championship (2003-2020).
The Green Legacy Project is also meant to showcase Kenya's commitment towards the United Nations Climate Action plan, the project's coordinator Ivy Kaburu said.
The tree planting exercise was led by WRC Safari Rally Event Secretary Helen Shiri accompanied by Service Park Manager Joel Muchiri, rally driver Neel Gohil, his mother Sangita, Safina Khan and Adil Khan.
WRC Safari Rally Kenya is one of the World Championship stakeholders who have achieved or renewed the FIA Environmental Accreditation or Certification in 2022.
Others are WRC Sweden, WRC Portugal, Copenhagen Historic, RX Hell, Auto Klub Prerov, Rali Bae Ceredigion, WRC Estonia and Riga World RX.
Singapore, WRC Greece, WRC Japan, WRC Croatia, WRC Spain, WRC Portugal, and WRC Finland have also been certified.
In 2022, 49 championship stakeholders, Kenya included and three FIA Members, were accredited or upgraded their accreditation to two-star and four renewed their three-star accreditations due to commitment to the environment, the FIA says in its Environment Action Report.
The Sustainable Energies Roadmap was further improved in 2022 and the FIA is on track to ensure that all its championships can run with clean energy by 2026, with five FIA World Championships already running on sustainable energies.
The WRC was one of the first FIA World Championships to use 100 per cent sustainable fuel which allowed for a CO2 reduction of up to 94 per cent, according to the federation.
In the first year, it is estimated that a reduction of 512 tonnes of CO2 has been achieved compared to standard fuel, the FIA has said in its Environmental Report 2023.
As a signatory of the United Nations' Sports for Climate Action Framework, the FIA has committed towards environmental sustainability since November 2019 to make F1 a net zero-carbon sport by 2030.
The United Nations Climate Action has said that Sports organisations can display climate leadership by engaging together in the climate neutrality journey.
"They can achieve this by taking responsibility for their climate footprint, which in turn will incentivize climate action beyond the sports sector, and therefore help global ambition step up in the face of the threat posed by climate change," says the body in its website.
Athletics Kenya has also embraced the fight against climate change and is one of the national federations in the country that regularly undertakes tree planting programmes.
