What it’s like to be a GIC Monitoring and Evaluation Officer
demonstrate woodlot management to one of the schools engaged in the tree-planting project.
These two officers play a crucial role in monitoring the success of theGIC project, a unique partnership between the champions of dry-land forestry – Better Globe Forestry; the experts of habitat restoration – Bamburi Cement Ltd; Africa’s biggest geothermal energy producer – KenGen; and KenGen Foundation.
The project, designed as a competition between participating schools, aims at greening over 500 acres of the semi-arid counties of Embu, Meru, and Machakos with drought resistant Terminalia brownie, Senna siamea and Melia volkensi tree species. The project currently incorporates 120 primary and secondary schools from the 3 counties and aims to raise the awareness and participation of school children in environmental conservation activities.
READ MORE: 2nd Green Initiative Challenge Capacity Building Exercise Reviews Project’s Progress
A typical day for the M&E officers starts with a briefing session with KenGen’s Environment team at Gitaru power station. It is also here that some of the project’s seedlings are produced, stored and distributed to the participating schools.The rest are at Better Globe’s afforestation station at Kiambere, Embu County.
Julius demonstrating to ‘Green Teachers’ the proper way to plant a seedling. The M&E Officer offers hands on training to the participants during the GIC capacity building sessions.
“Our work requires a lot of patience and people skills”, says James, while keenly inspecting a particular seedling at a school woodlot in Embu County. “The harsh weather conditions make the competition even harder for certain schools, and it‘s not surprising to receive several phone calls in a day from ‘Green Teachers’ who are worried that their trees are dying”.
At a school in Machakos, Julius is passionately showing a group of students and their ‘Green Teacher’ the delicate process of pruning a young seedling. He slowly and carefully saws through a branch, explaining the need to be gentle with the delicate plant.
“It’s better to water the tree-seedlings early in the morning so as to ensure better water retention”, he explains as he softly arranges mulch around the base of the plant. “Besides increasing the plant’s survival chances, such innovations are also considered when tallying the data that will determine who wins the competition.”
The sustainable management of tree nurseries and woodlots will provide the participating schools
