Kenya Unveils First National Tree Planting Day

What's the story?

• Monday marked Kenya's first annual National Tree Planting Day, a holiday dedicated to planting 15 billion trees over the next decade.
• The public holiday is part of an initiative to mitigate climate change and tackle deforestation amid the country's severe drought. 
• On the holiday, Kenyan President William Ruto wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter:

"Conservation of the environment is the urgent and collective responsibility of our time."

How did it work?

• On the new national holiday, each Kenyan was encouraged to plant at least two seedlings to help hit the day's target of 100 million trees. The government made 150 million seedlings available for free in public nurseries. Officials encouraged people to plant the free seedlings in designated public areas and buy additional seedlings for their own land. Government officials led tree-planting activities around the country.
• Tree planting was monitored through the app JazaMiti, Swahili for "fill with trees." Through the app, people can record their tree-planting activity and report plant species, number, and date planted. The app helped people plant the appropriate seedling varieties depending on their location.
• Environment Minister Soipan Tuya expects 500 million trees to be planted by the end of the rainy season in December. Official counts of seedlings planted have yet to be released.
• Environmental activist Elizabeth Wathuti said:

"The environment is everyone's responsibility – everyone has to make a contribution. It was incredible to see so many people asking where they could plant trees or get seedlings."

Barriers

• Environmentalist Teresa Muthoni told the BBC that the initiative was a "very good idea" but pointed to barriers to participation:

"Many people have to continue with their work to put food on the table... it is coming at a time when our economy is not doing well so a lot of people are struggling financially."

• Some people have criticized the Kenyan government for failing to halt illegal logging on public forests and its decision to lift a ban on the practice earlier this year. The government has argued that logging is vital for the economy and local industry.

What do you think of the public holiday? Should the U.S. do the same?

-Emma Kansiz

(Photo Credit: Photograph: Sayyid Abdul Azim/AP)