By Hopkin Reporter
A group of youths five years ago came together to restore the receding forest cover of Kitui.The initiative is at Katyethoka village in the outskirts of Kitui town. “The aim is to mitigate the vagaries of climate change and ultimately help to conserve the environment. All this is towards making our planet Earth more hospitable,” Mark Musyoka said. Musyoka is an environmentalist and in charge of the Kitui-based Green Care Tree Nursery project.
He told Hopkin Reporter the idea of setting up a tree nursery was borne out of the passion for environmental conservation. “As youths we had to do something to help stop the adverse impact of climate change. We wanted to have people plant and grow more trees,” The Environmentalist said.
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“We were determined to grow big but we had to start small. We started with propagating 500 acacia tree seedlings which also included two indigenous tree species. “Currently we have more than 50,000 tree seedlings. We have actually integrated various tree species according to the purpose, use and value of trees species.”
The 28-year-old said during its early days members had to literally gather and collect tree seedlings and aggregate them at the nursery site. “We have been able to make real money here. There are times we even make seedlings sales of more than a million shillings per season,” he said as he showed the Our reporter around the Katyethoka village tree nursery site.
Musyoka hopes the Kitui county government would also consider acquiring seedlings from his group as that would give it a big fiscal boost. Kitui county has two rain seasons – the long and the short rains.
Dorcas Mumbe crowned a climate change action champion from the success of the tree seedlings initiative. “The group members have benefitted a great deal from this nursery. It is one of the nurseries which has had its members undergo capacity building sessions courtesy of SNV Craft,” she said. Mumbe added that the project had empowered jobless young people who earn a living from it.
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