Written By Ramadhan Kambi | |
A remote village in Kilifi County is now at the centre of international recognition after the Arsenal football club from England sponsored a tree-planting project.
The project which is part of the Gunners sustainability matchday drive seeks to create ‘the Arsenal Forest’ and has partnered with Carbon link a nonprofit forest restoration organization that specializes in helping communities in Kenya to plant tropical forest trees.
Carbon Link NGO estimated that to offset the carbon consumption of the matchday program 12,500 trees must be planted each absorbing 20 kilograms of carbon over the next 10 years.
The gunners financed carbon link to plant 12.5 acres of land that is equivalent to 21.3 Emirates football pitches in Bore Singwaya area Magarini sub-county.
The area is prone to floods and drought disasters due to the destruction of trees for charcoal production.
An official from Carbon link NGO Ru Heartfelt said the project called Arsenal Forest in Africa is being implemented by Bore green Umbrella and Carbon link for Arsenal FC .
He said they have been working with Bore Community-based organization for the last 14 years restoring the forest cover by planting tropical forest trees in the area.
So far, he said they have managed to plant over 3 million trees which is part of their move to fight against the effects of climate change.
Speaking to journalists at Bore village which is in the remote part of Magarini Heartfelt who hails from Wales said he has been helping the community by raising funds from abroad to do sustainable development projects.
“I have been a tree planter planting trees to absorb carbon for many years since it was so common back in the 90s, I was planting trees in my country and then some research came out of America that it was the world’s tropical forests that are required for keeping the planet cool so I stopped planting trees back home in Britain and I started planting trees over here in Kenya,’ he said.
Part of his work he said was to persuade those in the developed countries on the need to support communities who are poor to protect their forest.
He said the Arsenal Forest for Africa really came by luck as one of the volunteers in the project was producing some of the arsenal matchday programs and through that Arsenal approached them requesting if they would like to plant trees to compensate for the resources used in the matchday program that they publish.
Heartfelt said they put a proposal to the Gunners which was accepted and now they have begun planting 20,000 trees.
“Those trees will absorb an enormous size of carbon over the next 25 years and they will also compensate for the paper that used in the Arsenal matchday program,” he said.
He said in the process the project will provide a lot of work for local people planting trees clearing the bush and watering the trees.
Heartfelt said Arsenal also supported a local team in Bore Singwaya who together with many locals greatly supports the gunners.
He said Arsenal bought them Arsenal kits, boots, and shorts to help the team perform better in football games.
Heartfelt said the Gunners wanted to show their supporters in Britain that they are also supporting their supporters in Africa which are many.
Since they started planting, he said the scale of planting has increased from 1000 cashew nut trees every year to 1 million trees annually.
“That means we are having a much big regional impact within this part of coast province. Up to now we have planted a total of 3 .9 million trees and we are currently supporting directly around 400 individuals in different ways,” he said.
He said they also deliver free seeds to around 3000 farmers and, in the future, up to 460 local schools.
Most of the trees they plant he said are drought resistant and in the case of the Arsenal Forest in Africa, they plant mostly Neem trees which are capable of withstanding drought.
Alex Katana from Bore Community CBO said at first, they used to plant 200,000 trees and rose to 1 million trees.
He said the project was not only focusing on planting but to uplift the standards of living of people through job creation, building of classrooms, issuance of solar panels among others.
Katana said they established a tourism hotel in Bore which is overlooking Nyari depression to help the community on employment.
“This project is very important to help address the effects of climate change because people get employment and stop charcoal production,” he said.
In their five-year plan he said they target to restore all the areas destroyed and are using written pledges for the community to sign and get money agreeing not to cut trees again,” he said.
Lenox Katana a resident of Bore Singwaya said they were happy to have the project as it is helping to restore the forest that was destroyed by charcoal burning.
“Our area is one of the areas affected by drought and the forest have been destroyed by charcoal burning, locals now have abandoned the trade after sensitization and are concentrating on restoring the forest,” he said.
Idriss Maalim the Personal Assistant of Magarini member of parliament Michael Kingi said they were happy for Arsenal to support in planting trees to help in conservation.
He said the arsenal football club is also supporting sports and the main aim is to promote conservation in the area.
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