Greening Mua Environmental Initiative Programs

Reforestation

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Mua Hills serves as a rain catchment area for the surrounding areas of Athiriver, Nairobi and Machakos due to its height of 1844m. During the colonial days, it was densely forested but human activity has destroyed the forest cover since independence. What today remains are big tree stumps and a few blue gum trees as last witness of an occupation by friendly forces long gone. The hyenas and cheetahs used to roam the valleys and hills preying on goats grazing in the undulating plains but this is no longer the case. The wildlife ecosystem is nearly extinguished. It used to drizzle all year round but the weather has changed and drought spells are being experienced in the area. Rainfall is not adequate due to climate change. This has shifted the planting cycles and affected the productivity of the region. Soil erosion has been rampant in the area and this is evidenced by the massive soil carried down the hills.

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Under the Greening Mua Hills Initiative Program, the reforestation initiative will contribute to Kenya’s aim to plant 1.8 billion trees and achieve more than 10% forest cover in the country by 2022 hence helping the government to contribute to the AFR100 (the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative) which is a country-led effort to bring 100 million hectares of land in Africa into restoration by 2030. AFR100 contributes to The Bonn Challenge which is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world's degraded and deforested lands into restoration by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. So far 162,700 tree seedlings have been planted. This will help to restore the forest cover, reduce carbon emission thus improving the wellbeing of the community. By planting 1 million tree seedlings and growing the trees to maturity, the project will contribute towards increasing the forest cover of Machakos County which is currently at 3%.

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Why reforestation ?
• To reclaim the land that has been exposed to vagaries of weather.
• Trees absorb significant amounts of carbon dioxide to combat climate change and provide other benefits
• To restore the forest cover
the forest cover, reduce carbon emission thus improving the wellbeing of the community.

Reasons for success

1

A committed, selfless team of community coordinators (Green Champions) 

2

Adapting success lessons learnt from other parts of the world that have worked and using the right approach i.e., restoration of the environment

3

Bottom-up approach i.e., engagement with the community  

4

Planting the right trees in the right places which is the farms of the community members

5

Continuous sensitization of the community on the “landscape approach”.

6

Partnership with The National Treasury through the Greening Kenya Initiative

7

Support from The National Treasury, The Department of Environment and The Department of Correctional Services through provision of free seedlings

8

A robust Monitoring and Evaluation framework that provides essential information on a timely basis

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Required interventions
• To grow 1million trees by 2021 in order to restore the previous forest cover
• To continuously sensitize the community on the “landscape approach”
• To establish tree nurseries through youth and women groups and schools that will grow the right trees for the area
• To work towards the provision of alternative energy sources especially for cooking to limit potential leakage from restoration efforts
• To build capacities for Green Champions
• Create green jobs for the youth and women through the establishment of Agribiz projects
• To continuously Monitor and Evaluate the reforestation initiative

Greening Mua Environmental Initiative

World Environment Day 2021 Theme:

ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION

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Address

Mua, Kaseve                    
Machakos, Kenya.

Contacts

Email: info@gmei-env.org 

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