Secretary Administration Dr. Joshua Chepchieng of SDLD, on behalf of Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai, yesterday officiated the event National tree planting Day at SHIN HYUN Primary School, in Mukothima ward, Tharaka Nithi County. The participation by TWENDE (Towards Ending Drought Emergencies) who led the tree planting event, directly contributes to the president’s Agenda on National tree growing and restoration campaign, which seeks to grow 15 billion trees. Twende project is an ecosystem based adaptation in Kenya’s Arid and Semi Arid Rangelands to reduce the economic cost of climate change induced drought on Kenya’s national economy by increasing recilience of the Livestock and other land use sectors. A total number of 7,500 trees were planted yesterday. Twende is so far aiming at an improved climate change, as per Kenya’s national policy of ending drought Emergencies as outlined in Vision 2030.
TWENDE project targets to benefit 620,000 people in 204,000 households in restoring 500,000 hectares of Rangelands accross 11 ASAL Counties, and Tharaka County is one of them. The project will engage and work with County Government, project beneficiaries and all respective stakeholders. In this project, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is the accredited Entity to the Green Climate Fund