The Planet Patron Foundation, (PPF), a local school greening advocacy, has partnered with the Nakuru County Government in an ambitious afforestation drive of greening 550 hectares of the large land occupied by schools.
Nakuru County Secretary Dr. Samuel Mwaura says the initiative seeks to spur young learners into the nation`s spirited war against adverse effects of global warming and climate change while inculcating environment conservation skills at their formative stage.
He was speaking today at Langalanga Primary School where he led officials of the devolved unit and PPF, pupils, and teachers in a tree planting exercise.
Dr. Mwaura said the initiative to be rolled out in over 1,000 schools and adjacent farmlands across the County seeks to boost efforts by the subnational government to restore degraded landscapes to support crop and livestock production.
Dr. Mwaura said a countywide tree planting exercise during current rains would go a long way in enabling the county to achieve a ten percent forest cover and called on other institutions to follow suit. He urged residents to embrace tree planting with a view to assisting the government to achieve its vision of restoring the environment.
He challenged teachers and parents to encourage pupils to plant and grow trees on their birthdays as a deliberate attempt to achieve the County`s ambitious goal of planting 15 billion seedlings by the year 3032.
The County Secretary indicated that already 1,000 trees have been planted and are growing through similar initiatives across 11 sub-counties in Nakuru. And, more would be attained by involving pupils, in planting seedlings and nurturing them to maturity.
He tasked youth and women to acquire skills in tree nursery management and venture into large-scale quality tree seedling production where, he noted, they could be resourceful in empowering the cause and be assured of a business opportunity and improved livelihoods.
PPF Executive Director and nominated MCA Wanjiku Njoroge revealed that besides conserving the environment, the course aims to create awareness about mental health among teachers and students in the participating schools.
Njoroge stated that the campaign targets to propagate 5,000 trees and knowledge about mental health in each school in the County`s 11 sub-counties.
She said seasoned teachers, counselors, and religious leaders have hopped on the PPF bandwagon to unite with young learners for one destiny a healthy environment and sound mental health for all.
She said that the joint monitoring system will ensure that the seedlings are well taken care of so that they have a survival rate of at least 90 percent.
She appealed to residents to embrace tree planting with a view to assisting the government in achieving its vision of restoring the environment and mitigating climate change effects.
By Veronica Bosibori
