Environmentalists are piling pressure on the government to establish how many trees planted under Kenya’s restoration programmes have actually survived, arguing that planting figures alone cannot show the success of the country’s tree-growing efforts.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

The concern is that seedlings planted during national and community campaigns can die from drought, poor maintenance, pests and unsuitable sites, yet such losses may not be reflected in official figures.

Environmentalist Dr Isaac Kalua Green has called for the government to regularly return to planting sites and verify how many trees remain alive, saying survival should become a key measure of the country’s restoration efforts.

“For years, we have measured our progress by what we plant on the day of planting, not by what is still standing when no one is watching,” Dr Green said.

📌 What You Need to Know

His call comes as Kenya continues to mobilise citizens and organisations under the 15 Billion Trees Campaign, which seeks to increase tree cover and restore degraded landscapes across the country.

In April 2026, Environment Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa appointed tree-planting champion Hillary Kibiwott as an ambassador after he planted 23,326 trees within 24 hours.

Kibiwott’s achievement, which was awaiting official ratification by Guinness World Records, was hailed by the government as an example of the individual commitment needed to help Kenya achieve its ambitious tree-growing target.

Kenya has also gained global attention after over 4,000 Scouts and other participants set a Guinness World Record for mass mangrove planting at Jomvu. The country has restored 91.6 million mangroves, over 65% of its 140 million target.

The achievements demonstrate the scale of mobilisation around tree planting in Kenya, but Dr Green argues that the more difficult task is establishing what happens after the planting events and whether the seedlings survive long enough to contribute to forest restoration.

His Plant Your Age campaign estimates that it has recorded about 981 million tree-growing contributions since 2011. However, Dr Green said the initiative could fully answer only a fraction of the questions needed to establish how many of those trees survived.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke