The Kenya & Tanzania Reforestation Project
Kenya’s deforestation accounts for approximately 54,000 hectares of forest a year. Forest cover has reduced to 7 per cent of the country. Similarly, Tanzania’s national demand for food and wood is increasing faster than supply, resulting in a loss of 400,000 ha of forest per year and over 60 per cent of the country affected by deforestation and degradation.
In over two decades of owning an adventure travel company and leading cycle tours around the world, including through Kenya and Tanzania, we watched this deforestation occur before our eyes, year on year. This prompted us to begin incorporating tree planting on our tours, working with local reforestation projects and plant nurseries.
In 2022 Mandy and I sold our travel company and began finding out where we fit in the native forest restoration industry and planning how we could return to Kenya and Tanzania to continue with, and grow, these planting projects.
And this is where you come in:
Join us in Kenya and Tanzania with 10-12 other keen people to plant native trees! We work with local tree nurseries to buy their seedlings and employ local labour to work alongside us, with a goal to plant 10,000 trees on 4 different reforestation projects over a two week period. In between projects we’ll get to experience the wildlife and culture that East Africa is famous for so it’s not all sweat and hard graft!.
This is more than just a feel good project, we aim to help grow forever forests that will benefit generations to come, preserve water catchments and create employment. You will get hot, sweaty and dirty, but don’t worry, we will make sure you have comfortable accommodation in lodges, glamping tents and guesthouses with hot showers and great food! Plus you’ll get to work alongside local people and school children and learn first hand about their lives.
Not only is East Africa in dire need of having trees planted, another huge positive is that we can plant around 4 times as many trees in East Africa than we can here in NZ for the same money AND get to experience East Africa while you are doing it! Plus being a tropical region they will grow so much faster and absorb more carbon far more quickly than they will here in our temperate climate.
The downside of course is our carbon footprint in travelling to and from Africa. Depending on which carbon calculator you use it needs around 5 forever trees to be planted to off-set each person’s travel.
So once you sign up to join us you can then choose how many trees you want to sponsor. At just NZ$2.50 per tree, if each person sponsors 1000 or more trees we can easily make our goal of 10,000 trees planted. Maybe get your friends, employers, clubs involved to sponsor a tree and help us reach our goals!
NOTE: NZ$2.50 per tree includes the site preparation, the tree seedling, the local labour to help us to plant them and the ongoing protection and maintenance of the forest
Note: Our goal of 10,000 trees planted on this tour is based on a group size of 10-12 people.