Reforesting Kijabe, Kenya
Update: Our partnership with Intrepid came to an end in February 2022, having funded the planting of over 200,000 trees on the Kijabe Forest site. Whilst you can no longer support this site directly through Ecologi, you can make a direct donation to this project via The Intrepid Foundation.
Intrepid’s not-for-profit, The Intrepid Foundation, helps to raise funds for a variety of projects around the world, including reforestation projects such as this one.
In this part of Kenya, years ago the indigenous forest was turned into a eucalyptus plantation (non-native species). After the eucalyptus was harvested 15 years ago, it has remained deforested ever since. There are a few patches of eucalyptus that have continued to regrow over the years, but for the most part it’s bare land. The areas that weren’t under plantation have been deforested for charcoal and firewood over the last 15-20 years, and is no longer a closed canopy forest, but a mix of pasture and degraded forest thickets.
There used to be wetlands and springs on this plateau, so as the trees are planted the soil will be restored and the water catchment area improved, as well as other ecosystem benefits for the animals and insects.
Eden Reforestation Projects are planting a mix of native species: Croton megalocarpus, Warburgia ugandensis, Euclea divinorum, Juniperus procera, Acacia abyssinica, Acacia kirkii, Rhus natalensis, Sessbania sesbans.
Other benefits to the area include the creation of jobs for local people from the planting, as well as opportunities to collect seeds from the Juniperus and Croton tree species, that is used for infusing gin.
There are lots of questions you might have about planting trees as a climate change solution, so we’ve put pen to paper and answered them in our article on responsible reforestation.
Photography credit: Eden Reforestation Projects
Climate solution #5
Tropical forests
In theory, 751 million acres of degraded land in the tropics could be restored to continuous, intact forest. Using current and estimated commitments from the Bonn Challenge and New York Declaration on Forests, our model assumes that restoration could occur on 435 million acres. Through natural regrowth, committed land could sequester 1.4 tons of carbon dioxide per acre annually, for a total of 61.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2050. Only carbon stored in soil organic matter and aboveground biomass is accounted for; below-ground biomass is not included.