Miti Maalum
Restoring Kenya's rich biodiversity together.
There are well over 1400 species of indigenous shrubs in Kenya, of which about half will grow above 1500m. Yet if you go to any tree nursery you will be lucky to find 20 indigenous species.
Our Journey Begins
Miti maalum is a new project where we are finding outgrowers to grow our rare trees. These people may have companies with spare land, or schools or just gardeners, farmers or tree collectors who want to cultivate rare or unusual species to conserve them for future generations.
We will create a list of species and where to find them if enthusiasts wish to see the trees or find a seed source.
Over the last 25 years, we have noticed a slow but increasing interest in the planting and cultivation of indigenous trees in Kenya.
If one looks at the indigenous species grown in tree projects in upland Kenya there are very few and include olives, Pencil Cedar, Podos, Warburgia, mwiri, Crotons, Cordia, Markhamia , Spathodea, Zanthoxyum gillettii etc., probably no more than 20 of the more than 500 upland species available.
However, the selection of species has been limited, partly owing to the difficulty of obtaining seeds and seedlings and partly owing to lack of knowledge.
We want to raise awareness of the wide number of tree species that should be encouraged. We are starting with trees that we know will grow in the wetter Kenya uplands above 1200-1500m. We refer to them as Miti maalum (special trees) because they are unusual, rare, threatened, or just rarely seen or rarely planted.