Greening the ground

WOMEN ARE AT THE FOREFRONT OF RECLAIMING ARID LAND TO MAKE IT FERTILE AGAIN

Had you visited Kuku Group Ranch in Kenya in 2016 you’d have seen strange half craters dotted across an otherwise bare expanse of red soil. Almost sculptural, they weren’t a work of art, but they were a work of beauty nonetheless. Each semicircular pit – known as a bund – had the power to rejuvenate barren land.

Fast forward six years, and the landscape is lush, green and barely recognisable. The Maasai community living in this part of southern Kenya dug over 150,000 bunds, with support from NGO Justdiggit, which applies nature-based conservancy techniques to bring life back to arid places.

Each bund captures rainwater – creating in essence a large puddle. Pooled rain nourishes seeds lying in the soil, allowing them to germinate. Plants then prevent the soil from degrading further, and within just a couple of years, large areas become green once more – in Kuku, 1,077 hectares have been regreened.

Alongside the water bunds, five grass seed banks were established, managed by different groups of women, who harvest seed to sell locally or to other regreening projects. The income gives them independence. “I was able to pay school fees and bought two goats,” says Kimire, a member of the Kuku community.

“The grass growing means there’ll be enough grass for livestock and more milk for my family.”

Kuku is just one of several similar projects across Kenya, and in Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia. Regreening at this scale has a massive cooling effect, vital to tackling climate change. And for the 29,000 people dependent on Kuku for income and food, it’s transformative, allowing them to continue living on the land that’s been their home for generations.