Wangari Muta Maathai
In Memory of Wangari Muta Maathai, 1940-2011
‘I am the Hummingbird Campaign’ is an international all-inclusive tree planting campaign seeking to honour the memory of Wangari Maathai by doing that which she loved most: planting trees. As a testament to all that she stood and fought for, this initiative seeks to mobilize and bring together Kenyans from all walks of life to participate in a national tree planting exercise to further the environmental cause closest to her heart.
How:
GBM has 4,000 community groups planting trees to restore critical watersheds in Kenya. KFS has 10 existing conservancies, 71 zonal managers, and 600 forest officers ensuring an active national presence.
The Hummingbird Campaign will utilise existing KFS infrastructure in Kenya to provide venues and guidance for those who wish to participate in planting trees. It is also important that this exercise is structured so they can ensure trees are planted where they can be taken care of. KFS will ensure that all trees planted are accounted for in its Seed Nursery Directory (currently implementing GPS tracking). Using this it will be possible to track the number and location of trees planted during this initiative. By way of such a national concerted effort, it is estimated that this initiative could potentially increase Kenya’s forest cover by 10%.
This initiative will take advantage of the fact that October is the Eastern region planting season. We will still incorporate planting in the Western region, though will utilize less trees in the Western region as conditions are not favourable at the moment.
Individuals and corporations will be welcome to purchase seedlings from tree nurseries and provide these for the public to plant at the pre-determined locations.