Seedling idea to plant 500,000 trees in Kenya comes to fruition in five months

Jim Cummings, a lifelong educator, has a long-standing passion for combating climate change and involving younger generations, both in the United States and in Kenya, in his grass-roots efforts. When Cummings discovered the Kenyan government’s plan to plant two billion seedlings by 2022 and the United Nations sounded ‘code red for humanity’ on climate change in August 2021, he began to generate ideas for how his non-governmental organization, Kijana Educational Empowerment Initiative, could be a part of the solution. In five short months, Cummings spearheaded and achieved a massive initiative to plant 500,000 trees.

Kijana operates in the U.S. and in Kenya–promoting and cultivating youth empowerment through educational development, cross-cultural dialogue, and sustainable and environmentally friendly economic growth, among under-served Kenyan school communities and American school communities. Thanks to the financial support of philanthropists, schools, businesses, and churches in the U.S, Kijana has served a pivotal role in transforming education and lives in Kenya by investing in over 30 schools countrywide since 1998.

One such funding effort catapulted Cummings’ tree planting endeavor. Kijana received support in March 2021 to develop an environmentally-centered program at the Kijana Global Innovation School, a modern pre-k through 12th grade independent school that Kijana is in the process of building. The unique, experiential environmental education program, entitled “Care, Share and Explore,” aims to protect and value life on earth–human, non-human, and plant.

“At its core is the idea of getting students out exploring into the local and regional environment.  The grant also included funding to plant trees, develop a pollinator garden, get environmental books, a few computers, and other resources for exploratory trips. This is all part of our deep and long-lasting commitment to environmental sustainability,” stated Cummings.

As the Founder and President of Kijana, Cummings spends his time straddled between two continents–mostly raising money and developing relationships in the United States and then overseeing the execution of Kijana’s programs and funding on the ground in Kenya. On a recent trip to Kenya last summer of 2021, Cummings and some of his Kijana team members engaged in collaborative discussions related to the tree-planting element of the “Care, Share, Explore” initiative and how to best implement the $6,000 budget to acquire 6,000 seedlings (cost of $1/seedling) and distribute the trees.

“In discussion and in online research at the time, I discovered that the Kenyan government had a plan to plant two billion trees by 2020. So, I wondered how far they had gone, as 2022 was only 6 months away.  I couldn’t find much information on progress, but it seemed like a daunting goal. Meanwhile, the UN came out with its new IPCC Report which said that irreversible climate damage had already been done and that we had to act with extreme alacrity and passion as humans to allow for a habitable future for us,” remarked Cummings.

Cummings’ wheels continued to turn and he wondered how Kenya could meet its goal which had a target of increasing the country’s forest cover from 7% to 10%. He researched the number of sublocations in Kenya and found that when the 6,612 sublocations were divided into two billion, each sublocation would need to plant 302,480 trees.

With respect to Cummings’ original goal to acquire 6,000 seedlings: “That would mean 296,000 were remaining for Buchenya sublocation alone. Seemed extraordinarily difficult.”

Thanks to Kijana’s recent hire of Mercy Chepsuge, a young environmentalist, new ideas emerged for the Kijana team to exceed its original goal of planting 6,000 trees and achieve the goal of planting 302,480 trees in the Buchenya sublocation.

Chepsuge explained that a small sachet of seeds, one kilo, could produce around 30,000 seedlings and cost about $50 U.S.

Cummings realized, “If we planted our own seedbed, we could generate 30,000 or so seedlings. Then to get 300,000, we would need nine other entities in the sublocation to do the same.”

Their goal quickly shifted course: build a community alliance with the six churches and three other schools in the sublocation and each would plant one seedbed and generate 30,000 trees, so “Buchenya could be a model for the country and create its share.”

Cummings’ team met with representatives of a few churches and schools, proposing: Kijana would pay for the seeds, the netting, and the sleeves for holding the seedlings once they emerged from the ground; the church or school would fund the soil/sand and wood or brick frame for the seedbed and water the seedlings. One church and two primary schools in the sublocation agreed to participate.

Chepsuge led the tree planting efforts at Kijana School and other entities in Buchenya. All 130 students from Kijana School participated in learning every aspect of tree planting in order to develop different skills including: reliability, responsibility, curiosity, exploratory nature, teamwork, creativity, and growing the love for nature.

Chepsuge believes “when youths join hands together in restoring and protecting mother nature, we will be able to curb the adverse effects of climate change and ensure sustainability of resources to the future generation. My environment will always be my responsibility.”

Concurrently, Cummings deployed teams in Kisumu, Luanda, Nairobi, and Tassia to do the same. Once again, a new tree planting goal sprouted.

“We embarked upon an ambitious plan to grow 500,000 trees by December 15, 2021, to show that it is possible to contribute significantly to global reforestation and canopy building through community teamwork.”

The Kijana team members reached out to over 30 schools, churches, and other non-governmental organizations throughout Kenya. Through much work and persistence, they succeeded in growing over 500,000 seedlings from seed in five months. Two members of the team, Anita Achieng and Linda Shiroya, led the effort of planting (from seed) and growing 429,826 seedlings through 20 entities in Kisumu and Nyakach.

Cummings hopes “this will be a model and inspiration for other communities globally to take immediate and collective action to mitigate climate change and build better communities, as well as set an example for young and old to work together to green our planet.”

Climate change will not be solved from a top-down government approach alone. Cummings encourages all citizens to take initiative, and “with a concerted, organized effort by small institutions on the ground, we can make something significant happen.”

When asked about his next goals, “Cross-cultural teaching and learning of what we have modeled in Kenya with respect to tree planting and climate change mitigation.” Cummings plans to begin meeting with U.S. schools in the coming weeks to pilot this idea. “We do not have time to waste.”