Restoring the landscapes in arid, semi-arid areas in Kenya

By Maurice Munga Gathu

Linda Mazingira is an initiative that was started by the Ewang`an Foundation with an objective to restore landscapes in arid and semi-arid areas in Kenya and promote nature-based solutions like planting and growing trees as part of youth empowerment and combating climate change. 

On 19th December 2020, the Linda Mazingira Initiative together with Miss Tourism Narok County, Ewang`an Foundation, Youth for Our Planet Kenya, Narok County Government, Elong`o Bubble Cleaning Services Limited, and Maasai Mara University organized a massive town tree planting and clean up exercise with the aim of creating a recreational park. Themed with #For Our Planet, the event saw the participants plant over 100 trees and also cleaned the town.  

For a while now, Kenya has been experiencing adverse effects of climate change such as unusual weather patterns like prolonged heavy rainfall patterns, intense heat waves in most parts of the country, and recently the rising and outflowing of waters from the river and lake basins mostly in the Rift Valley regions parts of the country. 

 This has been a major concern to farmers, communities living near natural resources, and the urban poor who heavily are dependent on direct resources from the environment which sparks the need for us to combat climate change globally, young people should be an integral part of the decision making processes and lead by example through planting and growing trees, doing clean-ups at the communities and educating the community members on the importance of conserving the environment.