GREENING AFRICA THROUGH SCHOOLS

Africa and indeed our country Kenya are very privileged to have Prof. Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and foremost environmental activist as our role model. Prof. Maathai started her campaign  for a better and sustainable environment about three decades ago when few took interest in the diminishing forest cover in this country and long before environmental issues gained prominence at the world stage. She started her work through the Green Belt Movement by mobilizing women groups to establish tree nurseries from where they could get tree seedlings to plant trees from where they could get both fuel wood fuel and timber for their use. However, due to the adverse effects of climate change brought about by global warming, there is need to come up with new ways to augment the work of this great environmentalist.
Africa is known to the outside world for all the wrong reasons including coups, armed rebellion, road traffic accidents, diseases, food shortages, droughts, authoritarian rule and now declining economies due to low commodity prices at the world stage. However, one of the greatest threats lies in the frequent droughts that is impacting negatively on our food production capacities that cannot meet the increased demand as a result of our rapidly expanding population. There is therefore need for national governments in Africa to take the threat seriously and develop contingency plans to mitigate the effects of global warming by increasing forest cover to act as carbon sink. The Kenyan government is presently talking of increasing our forest cover from 2% to 10 % so as to meet the world standards but I don't think this is good enough because environmental issues such as these ones are best discussed at regional levels to get the desired results. It's there imperative that the African Union (AU) also gets involved so that the necessary number of trees are planted as fast as possible to give the desired  impact.
If we take our country, Kenya, as an example, we presently have devolved funds in the form of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF) and soon we shall have Counties that will be funded from the national government through revenue allocation. All the rural areas will therefore have funds which could be allocated at the local level for comprehensive tree planting programs with the support of the national government.
The starting point, I think, is for the county governments to draw up strategic plans and involve the national government departments such as water, agriculture, forest and education in the implementation. We have rural schools scattered in all corners of the country and in most cases, they have ample land for establishment of tree nurseries and even forest plantations on  their compounds. Therefore, there is no  better way to involve the community and future generations in such noble projects other through the school children. If for instance, the community is involved in such programs, the school compounds would act as the teaching grounds for everybody on tree care apart from acting as the source for planting materials. In order to make such programs viable and sustainable people could be paid through carbon credits for the trees they plant and care for, whether on private land or public areas. Such payment programs are now available though Carbon Trading and Clean Development Mechanism as outlined in the Kyoto Protocol. I am aware of several families who are already "reaping" money through regular payments just for planting trees on their farms. Africa can never go wrong on this one because unlike coffee and cocoa prices which are determined at the world stage, there is nothing to lose because one is assured of fuel wood and timber regardless of whether the carbon credit comes through or not. Let's go for this one, Africa, and we shall never regret!