Innovator clicks on big conservation idea with app that keeps track of trees growth

Lawi Njeremani, consultant co-ordinator of the tree planting initiative, checks the GPRS co-ordinates of a tree -planting site. PHOTO | SARAH OOKO 

By SARAH OOKO

Forty-six-year-old Gideon Maina decided to grow trees on his one-acre piece of land in Rongai last year. Being on a slope, he says that rain surface water had massively eroded the soil hence making the land infertile.

“So my strategy was to have the trees there for a while to improve the soil quality.”

But Mr Maina works in Mombasa and lives with his family. He therefore could not get ample time to monitor the trees frequently in their initial growth stages.

“When I went back in December, I was shocked to discover that many of the trees were in bad shape and most had dried out completely,” Mr Maina told Digital Business.

He is one of the many Kenyans who despite having the desire to invest in trees, often give up along the way due to monitoring hurdles.

Kenya’s forest cover currently stands at six per cent, just slightly more than half of the United Nations recommended ratio of 10 per cent .

To bridge this gap, various global organisations have embarked on tree-planting campaigns aimed at encouraging people to grow trees in their communities.

Through its partnership with the Aga Khan Foundation, the Lions Clubs International has also embraced this initiative and is rolling it out in different parts of the country.

To tackle the monitoring hurdle, Mr Lawi Njeremani, consultant co-ordinator of the tree planting initiative drive in Kenya, notes that he began using the My GPRS Co-ordinates App that can be downloaded in Android or Apple phones.

Even though its use is mostly prevalent in the transport sector where people rely on it to identify various locations, Mr Njeremani chose to creatively use it for environmental conservation.

The tool is now used by all Lions Clubs in Kenya to enable them track the progress of trees they have planted in various parts of the country.

“When we began last year, I couldn’t find a special app to help with monitoring. So I recommended that we use an already available technology and adapt it to our needs.”

Before the tree planting exercises begins, the participating Lions Club members are required to first download the My GPRS co-ordinates App.

Upon reaching the planting site, they activate the application and it immediately begins picking location details (longitude and latitude) of the area.

The site’s co-ordinates together with information on the tree species planted are then forwarded to a central Lions office database through an Internet-enabled phone. When interested parties click on the co-ordinates or search them through Google Maps, they are able to see ground images of the planting site.