 Many a times, trees are cut down and not replanted. Deforestation disrupts ecosystems and leads to many problems among them climate change and global warming. Richard Kukunga, an ambassador of trees, is seeking to fight deforestation by attaining a green tree cover by doing what he does best. I was born and raised in a military barracks. So, for the person that I am today, it began since I was a child, having attended a military nursery school, a primary school and a secondary school, all under the military. And this has molded me to having ended up being very much more caring about the environment and that is why I currently serve as the CEO of MiForest Initiative. Growing up and interacting with like-minded youth who were also seeing the effects of climate change and the rapid desertification that was happening in Kenya, we ended up coming together and asking ourselves, what can we do as youth? And so that is how our organization, MiForest Initiative was born to address the climate change that was happening rapidly in Kenya, things that we hadn't seen before. Lama, we've seen even sandstorms happening here in Nairobi or even in Mombasa and Kenya itself, something we have never seen before, the locust innovation which has also been recent. So it is such a climate crisis that drove us to start our initiative, MiForest Initiative, to ensure that the future generations and even our kids and grandkids at least will not come and find a Kenya which we did not do our part to ensure it will be sustainable for them. What encompasses a good risk species to plant, many would wonder. We normally start by looking at the areas which tend to be affected more or which as per our analysis and expert consultation will be in an area whereby there might be, there's a feasible climate crisis that might happen to them. Is it a landslide? For example, those living near quarries, is it flooding? Is it waterborne diseases when we have a lot of flooding now like Kibra? Our technical wing also falls within that. So MiForest has ended up developing green tech technology which is an application called GreenPup. GreenPup is a tree species to site matching tool, meaning that it recommends the right tree species to plant at any point of Kenya as per the climatic conditions and soil composition of that area so that the trees which are planted, they end up surviving much more than just planting the tree, any other tree that you might take it here and you take it to Kisumu or Mombasa, but it's not suited for that climatic condition. Richard explains, rating of trees at hand in terms of value addition to the community as well as the economy. I look at the community as a chain, which is we are deeply interlinked and connected even without realizing it. For myself as a person, I cannot progress socio-economically if it were not for an impact which someone else has done, whether I know them or not. For MiForest, we focus on a number of things. One, we are based in Langata and we have been working for the longest part in Kibra and what you do is we try to teach people also how to start up tree nurseries. In this way, you are empowering them socio-economically. So we teach them how to manage these nurseries. We teach them the right tree species to plant and also we teach them how to best plant these trees and ensure survival. So once you've set up these youth groups, women groups and the different CBOs and also working with persons who are able differently and through other partnerships that we have with other organizations, international organizations and so on, during international days which commemorate aspects of environment, we go back to these youth and organizations that we have empowered to buy the tree seedlings from them. One of Richard's greatest innovations so far is the app that helps people to plant trees virtually with the help of ambassadors. GreenPub is a web and mobile based application. It is a tree species to site matching tool recommending the right tree species to plant and GreenPub has three basic functionalities. It is a data collecting tool in that it collects the data for tree planting activities that have been happening across the country. This was not properly documented for the longest part and despite you recording the information, GreenPub also allows you to plant virtually by bringing the forest to the palm of your hands. You can virtually plant a tree and this order will be fulfilled by our green ambassadors who are spread across the 47 counties and they'll be taking care of that tree. The second functionality of GreenPub It is a data analysis tool data visualization and analysis tool. We are able to project all the data that of this tree planting activities and the last time we did a report to the ministry and the cabinet secretary for the short range period of last year we had planted Kenya as a country planted 38 million seedlings which 28 million was through aerial seeding. He knows well the value of working with others in his long and demanding journey. We have partnered with we have been lucky to receive a grant from one organization called Skywatch. Skywatch works hand in hand with NASA and they do process data or satellite data for a lot of research but now our focus is on agroforestry and agriculture as well so we are able to monitor which areas the trees are not survival through the drones also the drones are able to advise us why the trees in this particular section why were they not able to survive we can use a thermal vision because of that is it a building that is nearby and perhaps it's reflecting too much sunlight towards that particular area and that is why those trees are not being are not surviving in that particular area so that is what generally Greenpup has been doing and our partners in that for the data for the tree site matching we approached the Kenya Forest Research Institute when our dream seemed too big to be true for most of the people and individuals they took us in and at least the data that they are providing us is rich data that is as a result of Kenyan scientists who have always been researching for the very many years that's how we are able to know this climatic condition is very good for this particular tree we received a grant from Microsoft it's called AI for Earth Microsoft AI for Earth grant was being introduced in Africa for the first time and it was only 10 startups which were to get this particular grant we are the only one in Kenya we are very lucky and we are very honoured of that and we are the only one as well in Africa in our category to get this grant from Microsoft other partners we work closely with is the Minister of Environment and Forestry because they are taking up our application as the official monitoring tool for tree survival rates Richard reveals to me his ultimate goal in his talents efforts to beat climate change that is the 10% forest cover by 2022 what you are working towards is attaining and maintaining over 10% tree cover of the land area of Kenya as stipulated in Article 69-1b of the Kenyan Constitution as we stand right now the tree cover of Kenya is 7.22% we are supposed to achieve 10% the difference of trees the deficit that we have is 2.2 billion trees those are very many trees so that is why under our category of green ambassadors we also have vendors who are on the street so when you are planting virtually you can be able to buy from third-part vendor or you can be able to buy from an agency of the government which has a tree nursery and so on young and ambitious and keeps on counting his achievements our application received acclimation during the international youth forum that was held in Sochi, Russia where I had the opportunity to go as a guest speaker and the whole focus was on how our green ambassadors are enabling every other Kenyan to take up climate action ifos that are clearly visible to the world as he is Africa's finalist for UNEP Young Champions of the Earth Prize and when it comes to the youth he champions for their advocacy and inclusion on matters of empowerment and development for the longest part I have been serving also as the president of Young Diplomats of Kenya whereby I am a youth advocate and advocate for the inclusion of youth in policy making and this is not only in matters of domestic relations but also in international relations Reta draws his greatest motivation from the late Nobel laureate Dr. Wangari Mathai and the hummingbirds tell Dr. Wangari Mathai the first African woman and Kenyan lady to win a Nobel prize in environment she really really motivated me every time I walk through Kaurura every time I see the beautiful trees or people enjoying Uhuru Park all that is because of her how she fought she as a single individual as a kid I was a bit traumatized during that time when I saw all these mobs going to attack her I remember seeing a video of them pulling the hair from her head holding clubs even the TV had to be switched on because that was switched off because that really traumatized me but that image has never left my head there is one very interesting story that the late Nobel laureate Prof. Wangari Mathai normally gives about there was a forest and a fire started in the forest a very very big fire all the animals ran they ran away from the forest thinking they cannot do anything they are just very very small they are very small to have any impact on that but interestingly there was one hummingbird and as you know a hummingbird is one very beautiful tiny bird species it kept on flying to the waterhole drinking coming and you know spitting its drop on the fire it kept on doing that, doing that, doing that and all the other big animals like the elephants and so on which metaphorically now might put it as our leaders who we are expecting to guide us who have the big trunks to even suck up most of the water they were wondering what is this hummingbird doing so they asked the hummingbird what are you doing? are you crazy? do you think you can do anything about this? but the response that the hummingbird gave was very simple yet very beautiful that I am doing the best that I can to whichever capacity that I can that is to my level best so I think when myself as an individual and you as a Kenya you've done your best to take up something believe me there is someone who will notice and will motivate someone there have been a number of challenges along the way but none of them have been reason for him to quit the challenge that we've always had not only in Kenya but everywhere in the world is that many people do not have the mindset of taking up climate action they do not see the values that planting a tree might give them immediately but that is because a tree that is planted today only benefits as 10 years later I do acknowledge and people do acknowledge something like racism exists but when you go outside the country you with your PhD and when someone else who maybe just has technical skills also travels outside the country someone who is racist will not care about titles or anything they'll just see you as two very useless black people to be very real because I have faced racism myself at some point as well and during such instances is when you remember where can I run back and cry and be received with comfort it's home and where is home Kenya so that is what always motivates me to keep on these are the ambassadors views about climate change and global warming climate change is as a result of human activity it's as a result of human behavior it's also as a result of ignorance by we as humans on our part and unfortunately to say also for leaders for the longest part because environment was never taken seriously many dockets may be given a lot of attention but environment may be underfunded and so on so climate change has been happening because we've been having a lot of urbanization projects going on so as I'm saying human activity you'll find people going we've recently seen in gong forest there are many trees which are cleared so that estes can come up whatever you're doing be conscious of nature ensure it is sustainable we need trees in plants more than they need us so it is our duty to do what is right this is the arts champion's part in short we need animals and plants way more than they need us because it is nature which sustains us nature came before us nature has always been there nature can exist without us but we cannot exist without nature right now we are in the covid pandemic nature is thriving but we've had a lot of negative impact on nature there's food insecurity as we are right now in the pandemic we are the ones who are suffering without enough food so we are the ones who are supposed to take up this initiative