Schools Green Initiative Challenge Gears Up for 3-Day Capacity Building Exercise
The ten-year schools competition is a KenGen Foundation program in partnership with Better Globe Forestry and Bamburi Cement Limited that targets a total of 900 schools in the semi-arid counties of Embu, Machakos and Kitui. So far 120 schools have registered, with an additional 120 schools scheduled to be added to the competition annually.
The GIC expansion project targets the greening a total of 460 acres with 324,300 tree seedlings as well as 113,956 fruit seedlings (passion and pawpaw) The program includes 2 capacity building sessions and 2 Monitoring and Evaluation sessions per year for all participating.
The Green Initiative Challenge aims to raise the awareness and participation of school children in environmental conservation activities. The sustainable management of tree nurseries and woodlots will provide the participating schools with a renewable source of wood fuel thus reducing pressure on surrounding vegetation and forest resources.
It also accords the schools an opportunity to diversify their income through the sale of timber & non-timber products. Even higher benefits are the project’s contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases through carbon sequestration, and the control soil erosion by increasing topsoil infiltration & reducing runoff.
The project is designed as a challenge to participating schools, mainly due to the dry weather conditions in the areas, with prizes awarded based on the highest survival rate of seedlings and use of innovation. The best performing schools stand to benefit from education scholarships, infrastructural developments, water tanks, and rainwater-harvesting and cash awards among others.
-Ernest Nyamasyo, Communications Officer
