In Kenya, deforestation — which peaked between 1970 and 1990 — represents a serious threat to the five mountain forests found in the country, also known as the "Water Towers" because the main Kenyan rivers flow through them. Between 2001 and 2014, Kenya lost around 8 per cent of its tree cover, a forested area the size of the US state of Rhode Island.

The government has therefore adopted a strategy to reverse this trend and restore the country's mountain forests and degraded land, protect habitats that are home to a wide variety of animal and plant species — including endangered birds and mammals — and contribute to efforts to combat climate change.

An integral part of this strategy is the "20 million trees for Kenya's forests" campaign, which aims to plant twenty million trees in the area around Mount Kenya and other highland forests.

The goal is to restore primary forests by planting native trees, while also improving food security for local communities by planting trees on farms in order to restore soil fertility, shade other crops and produce fruit, nuts and medicines.

"This project is of vital importance to the people of Kenya," said Paulino Mugendi Damiano, founder of the environmental organisation Mount Kenya Environmental Conservation (Mkec). "The destruction of forests, combined with climate change, has caused a decrease in rainfall and an increase in soil erosion, which in turn has led to food scarcity and numerous hardships for the people living around the forests."

The UK-based organisation International Tree Foundation (Itf) is contributing to the initiative by raising funds through an international campaign to provide local communities with the resources they need to plant twenty million trees. "This is probably the largest and most ambitious campaign in our long history," said Andy Egan, chief executive of Itf, "but more than our campaign, it is Kenya's campaign."