Grow Trees and Make Kenya Greener
This is a campaign that runs in Kenya to ensure that we do not overexploit the forest. The various conservation bodies do go around institutions offering the needed education and awareness. They also do participate in activities such as tree planting and clean-ups.
Unfortunately, they are still a section of the community that is yet to embrace the campaign and act. The trees are disappearing at a very alarming rate. Once productive areas are slowly turning into semi-deserts.
A place like Miti Mingi which is located within Elementaita in Nakuru County is one of the places that is greatly affected by deforestation. The name was coined from the presence of many trees. In the 1980s, it was just a big forest and very few people lived in the area. The area was heavily forested but human settlement changed that. They cleared the land to get space for farming but with time the result was not so good. The place has become dry.
I also noticed that some trees along the Nakuru-Nairobi highway are being cut down. Most of those trees are within the man-made forest, so i don’t know what plan they have in place. I hope that they will plant trees soon to replace the ones they have already cut. One more thing that also made my heart sink, was the heavy presence of sawmills around that area. Their exploitation rate will determine the survival of the present forests. many sawmills do have their man-made forests and I hope that they can balance everything. It’s very crucial.
Communities are embracing this campaign by planting tree nurseries and selling the trees seedlings. They do sell these seedlings at a fair price making it possible for many of us to purchase them. Organizations are also supporting greatly by promoting these community-based projects and sharing the benefits of the forest by giving back to the community. This is one of the reasons behind the success of the forest.
The effects of deforestation take time to manifest but when they do, the aftermath is deadly. An area can turn from being productive to a desert and reversing the effect is usually next to impossible.
Trees do have a crucial part in our ecosystem as they provide oxygen, take in carbon, provide food and shelter to the living organisms as well as act as windbreakers, soil stabilizers, among others. They have a million benefits to our planet hence need protection. We should venture in ways that promote their conservation.
Small steps go a long way. While planting flower gardens, we should plant several trees in between. Not clearing all the trees while settling down but rather finding a way of co-existing together. helping the young generation understand and appreciate the importance of trees will promote the culture of tree planting and conservation in our society.
This is a wonderful, this will help to restore our nature, sustain our environment.