The Tudor Creek in Jomvu, Mombasa, and area locals are benefitting from the rehabilitation of the creek thanks to a partnership between two government entities.
The Kenya Forest Service and the Kenya Pipeline Company have a 10-year agreement that will see them plant 10 million trees across the country by 2032.
This is in line with President William Ruto's 15 billion tree-planting initiative that seeks to increase the country's forest cover by five billion trees by 2032.
In Jomvu, where the Tudor Creek is, some 50 hectares have been earmarked by the two agencies for rehabilitation after years of downgrading to human activities including charcoal burning, mangrove cutting for building materials, and wood fuel.
“We have planted 61,500 mangrove trees in the last week in Tudor Creek in collaboration with five Community Forest Associations within the county, who provided the seedlings and labour,” KPC environment officer Adan Ibrahim said on Tuesday at the creek.
KPC, Ibrahim said, has been involved in the tree-growing partnership for the past three years during which period some 500,000 trees have been grown across the country.
Community forest associations like Big Ship and Bidii Creek Conservancy have also been reaping big from the partnership.
Big Ship Organization executive director Bosco Juma on Tuesday told the Star they have so far supplied 20,000 mangrove seedlings in the last week, but since the partnership started about three years ago, they have supplied close to 60,000 seedlings.
“That helps rehabilitate the creek and also helps the youth in the group have something to take home to their families,” Juma said.
KFS Mombasa County forest conservator Benjamin Muindi said mangrove trees have many benefits to both the water and microorganisms in the water.
“They have deep roots that prevent soil erosion but also serve as a nursery for marine organisms and certain species of fish like shrimps and crabs,” Muindi said.
The canopies also provide nesting grounds for birds.
KFS said there is a need to plant more trees not only at Tudor Creek but also in other areas like Mkupe, Kibarani and others.
Juma, from Big Ship, said there is a need for more sensitization about carbon footprints and carbon trading.
“People, even government officers and other stakeholders, always confuse carbon footprint and carbon trading. There is a big difference but people erroneously use these terms interchangeably,” Juma said.
He said carbon footprints are the things that show or prove of the existence carbon in the air and other surfaces, while carbon trading is a more complex process that is more commercial based, he noted.
“We appreciate the government interventions on tree planting but there should be more interventions on nature-based solutions to promote sustainability,” he said.
The CFAs (Community Forest Associations), he said, need more nature-based solutions that also act as sustainability mechanisms.
“For instance, he noted, the beekeeping, ecotourism, and crab fattening are some of the nature-based solutions that help both conserve the mangrove forests and sustain the organizations,” Juma said.
