Absa Kenya Joins The Race To Save Mangrove Trees From Extinction

Absa Kenya, in the spirit of Africanacity, has joined efforts to save the mangrove forests from extinction through partnerships by various organizations in Kwale County such as the Gazi Women Group.

In its Sustainability Report, Absa Bank committed to planting at least 10 million trees across the country in the next five years, a move that is set to boost Kenya’s forest cover that has been fading away with each passing day.

The forest cover

The Forest Sector is key to Kenya’s social and economic wellbeing as most of the country’s economic sectors rely on environmental-based resources for their sustenance.

The Sector contributes about Kenya Shillings 7 billion to the economy and employs over 50,000 people directly and another 300,000 indirectly. Forest ecosystems also enhance landscape resilience to climate change.

In the country’s water towers, forests provide environmental services that include water quality and quantity, reduction of soil erosion, and creation of micro-climatic conditions that maintain or improve productivity.

Forests are also known to be among the most effective sinks of greenhouse gases, which cause climate change, and hence they are important in contributing to climate change mitigation.

Kenya’s forest cover is estimated to be about 7.4 percent of the total land area, which is a far cry from the recommended global minimum of 10 percent.

Kenya’s closed canopy forest cover currently stands at about 2 percent of the total land area, compared to the African average of 9.3 percent and a world average of 21.4 percent. Most of the closed-canopy forests in Kenya are montane forests that are also the nation’s water towers.

In recent years, Kenya’s forests have been depleted at an alarming rate of about 5,000 hectares per annum. This is estimated to lead to an annual reduction in water availability of approximately 62 million cubic meters, translating to an economic loss to the economy of over USD 19 million.

The depletion has the potential to rollback strides towards the attainment of Vision 2030 and the Government’s Big Four Agenda of food and nutritional security, affordable and decent housing, universal healthcare, and manufacturing if it is not urgently addressed.

Absa’s commitment to protecting the environment

It is in the spirit of restoring Kenya’s forest cover that Absa Bank promises to contribute by at least 10 million trees in 5 years. The bank says it will also partner with various organizations that are working towards taking care of the environment.

“We have pledged to plant 10 million trees in the next five years as we safeguard the environment for future generations. We look forward to establishing and nurturing partnerships with all the institutions represented here today as we contribute to the larger government agenda to attain 10 percent forest cover by 2022,” said Jane Waiyaki Maina from Absa Bank during the launch of Gazi Women Mangrove Boardwalk in Kwale.

Absa Bank was in Kwale on Saturday for the launch of the first phase of the refurbished Gazi Women Mangrove Boardwalk, run by Gazi Women Group. The women’s mission is to turn Gazi into a major tourist site while at the same time help conserve the mangrove trees that play a major role in conserving the environment in general.

Why save the mangrove?

For starters, mangrove forests sequester and store five times more carbon than any productive terrestrial forests. In simple terms, mangrove forests capture and store larger amounts of carbon than inland forests. It is important to note that carbon pollution is the main contributor to climate change, making extreme weather worse, and accelerating global warming.

Mangrove forests store carbon for long periods of time thereby mitigating or deferring global warming. Other ecological benefits of mangroves include preventing soil erosion, breeding grounds for aquatic organisms, acting as buffers between land and sea.

To help conserve trees, Absa Bank partnered with Ecopost by donating plastic waste that was then turned into plastic polls that were in turn used to construct the Gazi Women Mangrove Boardwalk. It one of the kind bridges that is made from plastic polls that last longer as compared to those made from wood.

To make this happen, as Absa Bank Kenya was transitioning from Barclays Bank, they remained with 5 strips of waste, around 3000 kilograms of waste consisting of plastic and metallic. The lender then donated the waste to Ecopost, a leading sustainability company in Kenya.

“During the transition, Absa provided us with good quality plastic waste from their various branches that we recycled and used as additives due to their strength and rigidity in the manufacturing of the strong planks that we sent over for building the Gazi Boardwalk,” said Mr. Stephen Musyoka who was representing Lorna Rutto, the Founder and CEO of Ecopost.

“There were approximately 40 percent Plastic, 10 percent Metal and the majority of the waste, around 50 percent being aluminum-plastic composite,” said Jane. “The plastic waste was recycled to produce polls that were used to construct the boardwalk. The boardwalk now provides a great opportunity for tourists to visit and tour the Kwale Mangrove forest without interfering with the ecosystem.”

Absa says it is committed to pursuing recycling options where feasible. The bank acknowledges that 100 percent of recycling is not enough to successfully tackle the plastics waste crisis on our own.

“Absa has therefore opted to embrace the power of collective action, which is only made possible by working together with our business partners and our communities,” Jane added.

Speaking during the launch of the boardwalk, Jane said: “We believe in possibility, persistence, and the efforts of people who always find a way to get things done. We refer to this as Africanacity, a word that speaks to our tenacious African spirit in response to the challenges we face. We are intentional about bringing possibilities to life and being a force for good in the communities where we operate and this is the foundation on which we stand today. We embrace a higher purpose that goes beyond philanthropy and looks at using our expertise to enable economic progress.”