Author: Njoki Kangethe

Njoki Kangethe  A tree has a price. A mature tree can be sold for timber. Its wood can become furniture, doors, flooring, paper or construction material. A plantation can be valued according to how much timber it is expected to produce and when that timber can be harvested. There are markets, invoices and receipts for […]

Njoki Kangethe  There is something deeply satisfying about planting a tree. You dig a hole, lower a seedling into the soil, cover its roots and water it. It is a small, tangible act, and perhaps that is why tree planting has become such a powerful symbol of environmental action. It gives us something to do […]

Njoki Kangethe  When we talk about protecting forests, the conversation can become strangely abstract. We talk about hectares restored, tree cover targets, carbon stored and biodiversity protected. We talk about illegal logging and charcoal burning, licences and moratoriums, water towers and climate change. All of these things matter, but somewhere inside the statistics are people […]

Njoki Kangethe  A forest can look like a single thing from a distance. A green mass on the side of a mountain, perhaps, stretching into the horizon. But get closer and the question of who owns it becomes surprisingly complicated. There may be government officials responsible for its protection, communities whose lives have been intertwined […]

Njoki Kangethe  When we talk about forests, we tend to count trees. We talk about hectares of forest cover, numbers of seedlings planted, tonnes of timber harvested and the percentage of land covered by trees. These measurements are useful, particularly in a country like Kenya where increasing forest cover has become an important national target. […]

Njoki Kangethe  WHO OWNS THE DATA THAT FEEDS US? For centuries, knowing what was happening on a farm depended on being close enough to see it. A farmer could walk through a field and inspect the colour of the leaves, feel the moisture in the soil, look at the sky and make a judgement about […]

WHEN THE RAINS NO LONGER COME: FARMING ON THE FRONTLINES OF CLIMATE CHANGE Njoki Kangethe  For generations, African agriculture has followed a rhythm that was as familiar as the changing seasons. Farmers planted when the rains arrived, harvested when the crops matured and prepared their fields for the next cycle with a confidence born of […]