Kenya's goal to plant 15 billion trees - and more tree planting records

This girl and her Taekwondo club joined in planting trees

Kenyans have been given a day's holiday to help plant 100 million trees

The event is part of a bigger goal to plant 15 billion trees in 10 years.

Kenya's President William Ruto took part in Makueni, in the east of the country, with ministers leading the process elsewhere.

The government says it will provide free tree seedlings for people to plant in public areas, but is encouraging people to buy seedlings to plant on their own land.

The tree planting will be monitored by an app called Jaza Miti, where people can fill out the type of tree they are planting, where and when they plant it, and get advice about which type of tree is best for their location.

School children were encouraged to join in the big tree plant.

Why is Kenya planting trees?

The tree planting initiative is intended to help fight climate change.

Trees help by absorbing carbon dioxide from the air while releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas - which means it traps heat in the Earth's atmosphere - causing global warming. More trees means less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - so less global warming.

What do Kenyans think about the tree planting plans?

At a planting event along Kenya's second-longest river, Athi, the BBC spoke to people taking part.

"I have come together with my colleagues, I'm happy to be here to show my love for the environment," student Wycliffe Kamau told the BBC.

"I have come to plant trees here, because our water levels have been diminishing. Even here at the river source, the levels are very low, trees have been cleared," said local resident Stephen Chelulei.

"We need to reverse climate change so that our children can have a place to live when we are no longer there."

What do some campaigners think?

Environmentalist Teresa Muthoni says that although the scheme is a "very good idea", it has come at a difficult time for many people.

"many people have to continue with their work to put food on the table... it is coming at a time when our economy is not doing well so a lot of people are struggling financially" she said.

Teresa also said that "a lot of the 150 million trees available" in public plant shops and nurseries were exotic and not native trees. "It is very important to plant the right trees in the right place," she said.

The Kenyan government has been criticised for supporting and promoting tree planting, whilst failing to stop illegal logging in public forests - it recently lifted a five-year ban on logging in July.

Logging is the process of chopping down trees to sell.

Environment Minister Soipan Tuya defended the decision by saying that only forests specifically listed for logging purposes were affected - about 5% of the total.

Check out some more tree planting schemes across the planet...

A very royal tree-planting

The Queen launched the Green Canopy scheme in 2021 to encourage the public to plant more trees

Back in 2021 the Queen's Green Canopy (QGC) campaign was launched to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, and was extended after she died so that people could plant memorial trees in her honour.

It aimed to encourage schools, families and companies to plant thousands of trees to celebrate the Queen's legacy and help protect the environment.

Overall more than three million trees were planted across the UK as part of the scheme!

King Charles and Prince William thanked everyone for taking part, and planted a special tree themselves to mark the end of the campaign.

Ethiopia tree planting

Some government offices were been shut down to allow people to take part in the green campaign

Back in 2019 Ethiopia made headlines around the world when it launched a huge campaign to try to plant 20 billion trees by the end of 2022 - a goal it says it achieved!

The government even says Ethiopian people planted more than 350 million trees in a single day in 2019.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed organised the big plant as part of a campaign called 'Green Legacy Initiative' which aims to help combat climate change and deforestation.

A variety of different tree types were used, including fruit trees, like avocado and papaya, and trees and shrubs to help protect farms.

World records for tree planting

Antoine Moses is on a one-man tree-planting mission!

If you're impressed by those tree planting skills, then check out some of these tree planting record-holders!

According to Guinness World Records, the record for the most trees planted by a single person in 24 hours is 23,060, and was achieved by Antoine Moses in Alberta in Canada on 17 July 2021.

Antoine has been planting trees for around six years and he says he has planted more than 1.5 million trees across Canada himself, with his goal to plant two million.

The record for the most trees planted in one hour, by a team of people in one place, is 303,150 - and was achieved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Forestry in the city of Çorum in Turkey, on 11 November 2019.

This record, was part of a larger campaign, which lead to 11 million trees being planted across all 81 cities of Turkey.

Mr Beast #TeamTrees

MrBeast, Jimmy Donaldson, took on a massive planting challenge

Popular YouTuber MrBeast set a viral tree planting challenge back in 2019 to celebrate him reaching 20 million subscribers on the platform.

MrBeast - who's real name is Jimmy Donaldson - teamed up with a tree planting company called Arbour Day Foundation, who said for every dollar donated they would plant one tree "in a forest of high need around the globe".

The goal was finally reached in October 2022, and now more than 24 million trees have been planted as part of the scheme.