By Victoria Schneider
Across Kenya and other arid and semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, communities continue to grapple with the devastating impacts of drought, erratic rainfall, deforestation, and decades of unsustainable land use. These challenges have left swathes of once-productive farmland barren, pushing millions of people deeper into food insecurity and poverty.
In response to this crisis, a unique solution is gaining momentum: forest gardens. This approach combines traditional agroforestry wisdom with modern regenerative agriculture to restore degraded farmland, improve livelihoods, and fight climate change.
A forest garden is a multi-layered system of farming that mimics the structure of a natural forest. It integrates trees, shrubs, vegetables, herbs, and vines to create a self-sustaining ecosystem. Unlike conventional farming, forest gardens promote biodiversity, reduce erosion, and enrich the soil without relying heavily on chemicals or monocultures.
The U.S.-based NGO Trees for the Future (TREES) has been a leading proponent of this method in Africa. In 2024, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) selected TREES’ initiative as one of seven global restoration flagships. The project operates in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, and Senegal.
“Forest gardens promote healthy soil and diverse crops, leading to increased income and access to nutritious food,” says Enoch Makobi, TREES Country Director in Uganda. “Farmers are fighting climate change and can overcome poverty and hunger.”
In Kenya, TREES partners with smallholder farmers, mostly in areas like Machakos, Kitui, and parts of Baringo and Makueni, where land degradation has made traditional farming untenable. The project recruits cohorts of 300–500 farmers per community. Each is supported for four years with training, tools, and seeds to transform half a hectare of their land into a productive, layered forest garden.
The results are promising. Where farmers once grew one or two crops, many now plant more than 12 species, from fruit trees and legumes to indigenous vegetables. By the end of the four-year program, that number can exceed 25. Farmers learn to produce their own compost, collect seeds, manage pests naturally, and sell surplus produce at local markets.
“We identify communities where farming is no longer sustainable,” says Lindsay Cobb, former deputy director of communications at TREES. “These are places where monocropping has stripped the land, and farmers are struggling.”
In parts of Kitui and Makueni counties, some farmers who joined TREES in 2019 now report steady access to income and food. One farmer near Wote town noted how her forest garden not only feeds her family but also earns her money by selling pawpaws, onions, and indigenous greens at the local market.
Another in Machakos said, “Before TREES, I used to buy vegetables. Now I harvest daily. I even sell to my neighbours.”
The forest garden also acts as a living fence, protecting crops from livestock, providing fuelwood, and offering fodder for goats, all without cutting down indigenous trees elsewhere.
TREES has big ambitions. By 2030, it hopes to plant 1 billion trees and restore over 188,000 hectares of land in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since launching its model in 2014, it claims to have restored more than 40,000 hectares, benefiting over 56,000 farmers.
Yet, not everyone is convinced. Critics argue that while the concept is sound, large-scale scientific evaluation is still lacking. In drylands like Kenya’s ASAL counties, water availability remains a critical barrier. TREES requires farmers to be within 1 km of a water source to qualify, making the model hard to replicate in the most water-scarce areas.
Chris Reij, a sustainable land management expert with the World Resources Institute (WRI), says, “Forest gardens work well, but only in places where water is accessible. They aren’t suitable everywhere in the Sahel or arid Kenya.”
He adds that although forest gardens boost nutrition and income, their scalability is limited. “In Senegal, 10,000 hectares are restored annually, but 70,000 hectares are degraded every year. We are losing the battle unless we innovate beyond business-as-usual.”
Another criticism is the use of non-native trees, such as Calliandra and Leucaena, chosen for their fast growth and soil-enriching properties. While some conservationists warn of the risk of invasive species, TREES insists its planting list avoids harmful invasives and is tailored to each ecosystem.
In Kenya, the organization works closely with local agronomists and government extension officers to ensure planted species are appropriate for each zone, from drier lowlands to wetter highlands.
Still, long-term monitoring remains a concern. Many tree-planting programs globally have been criticized for inflating success metrics based on seedlings planted rather than trees that survive and thrive. TREES claims its method is different: “We plant trees with people, not just in places,” says Cobb. “We walk with farmers over four years to ensure success.”
Forest gardening is not a foreign idea in Africa. Indigenous communities have long practiced agroforestry, growing food and medicinal plants under tree canopies and preserving sacred groves. TREES’ work can be seen as a revival and modernization of this knowledge, not a replacement.
Peter Minang, a principal scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi, emphasizes that, “Agroforestry is an ancient African practice. Forest gardens bring structure and scale to what our ancestors already knew.”
As Kenya battles the triple threat of climate change, food insecurity, and land degradation, forest gardens offer a compelling, community-driven approach. But for the model to make a national impact, it will need local ownership, government support, and robust, long-term monitoring systems.
TREES says it’s ready for the challenge. With Kenyan farmers already leading the way in parts of Eastern and Coastal Kenya, the question now is whether this promising green patch can grow into a movement big enough to change the landscape, literally and figuratively.
This article has been adapted for Kenyan audience and is based on reporting originally published by Mongabay: https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/
