Our Work

Eleven areas of work, one shared purpose

Green Hearts works with communities to restore forests, grow trees, protect water and teach the next generation. This page keeps two things apart so you always know which is which.

What Green Hearts Organization does

Activities and approaches described in our own organization profile.

General environmental information

Background on the issue from published sources. It is not a list of our activities.

Areas of work
The Aberdare landscape
Wanjerere
Sources

What we do

Our Areas of Work

Where our profile does not describe specific activities in an area, we say so rather than fill the gap.

Forest restoration and conservation

What Green Hearts Organization does

We take a participatory approach to restoring degraded forests. Local people are invited to take part, so they share ownership of the result and the benefits of sustainable forest management. Documented examples include Aberdare Forest rehabilitation and Kangema Nature Park restoration.

General environmental information

Forests lose their value when they are cleared, burned or heavily grazed, and recovery takes many years. Kenya’s Forest Act of 2005 encouraged the Kenya Forest Service to form community forest associations, so local people can help protect and manage forests.⁴

Tree growing and afforestation

What Green Hearts Organization does

Our profile lists seeds and seedlings, indigenous trees, fruit trees and grafted fruit trees among our products. It also lists afforestation, together with eco-wood based bio-energy generation, as part of our approach.

General environmental information

Afforestation means planting trees on land that has not recently been forest. Reforestation means bringing trees back where forest was lost. In both cases, success depends on choosing species that suit the site and on caring for seedlings after planting, not only on planting them.

Indigenous tree planting

What Green Hearts Organization does

Indigenous trees are one of the products listed in our profile, and our photographs show young indigenous seedlings in nursery beds as well as community tree planting in forest areas and at Kangema Nature Park.

General environmental information

Indigenous, or native, trees have grown alongside local soils, insects and birds for a very long time. For that reason they are often preferred when natural forest is being restored, and planting a mix of species usually gives a more resilient result than a single species.

Climate action and adaptation

What Green Hearts Organization does

We take part in climate-change advocacy. Our profile describes a local approach to climate adaptation: working with communities on climate-resilient farming techniques, drought-resistant crops, water conservation strategies and climate-smart infrastructure. We took part in the Africa Climate Summit 2023.

General environmental information

Climate action has two sides. Mitigation means reducing the gases that warm the climate, and growing trees helps because they store carbon. Adaptation means helping people cope with changes already under way, such as shifting rainfall patterns.

Water catchment protection

What Green Hearts Organization does

Two of our documented projects involve tree planting to help protect water sources: Aberdare water tower rehabilitation and Sasumua Dam conservation.

General environmental information

A catchment is the land that collects rain and feeds a stream, river or dam. Trees and ground cover slow the flow of rain across the surface, hold soil in place and help water soak in. Bare slopes lose soil, which can silt up streams and reservoirs. The Aberdare range is one of Kenya’s main water catchments.²

Biodiversity and wildlife conservation

What Green Hearts Organization does

Wildlife conservation is among the activities named in our history since 2017. Our profile does not yet describe individual wildlife or biodiversity projects, so none are listed here.

General environmental information

Biodiversity is the variety of living things in a place. Forests with many layers and many kinds of tree usually shelter more of it. The Aberdare mountains are recognised as a Key Biodiversity Area, and the mountain bongo, a rare forest antelope, is listed as critically endangered.³

Sustainable agriculture

What Green Hearts Organization does

Our profile describes climate-resilient farming techniques and drought-resistant crops. Our seedbeds and school kitchen gardens project documents tree seedbeds and vegetable gardens.

General environmental information

Sustainable farming aims to grow food while keeping soil healthy and using water carefully. Common practices include keeping soil covered, adding compost and choosing crops that suit the local rainfall. Kitchen gardens bring fresh vegetables close to home.

Environmental education

What Green Hearts Organization does

We train primary school pupils in environmental stewardship, aiming to give them knowledge and skills and to inspire them to act in their communities. Our profile also describes building environmental literacy: the knowledge, skills and attitudes people need to understand environmental issues and make informed decisions.

General environmental information

Hands-on activities such as planting a tree or tending a garden are widely used in environmental education because learners can watch the results grow over time.

Community engagement

What Green Hearts Organization does

Community engagement runs through everything we do. We invite communities to take part in restoration, share knowledge and make decisions together, and we work with local people on climate adaptation and conservation.

General environmental information

Conservation tends to last longer when the people who live near a forest or water source have a real say and share in the benefits. In Kenya this idea is built into participatory forest management.⁴

Environmental clean-ups

What Green Hearts Organization does

Clean-ups are named among the activities we have carried out since 2017. Our profile does not describe individual clean-up events, so none are listed here.

General environmental information

Clean-ups remove litter and waste from public spaces, rivers and forest edges. They make the biggest difference when they go together with efforts to produce less waste in the first place.

Sustainable energy and eco-wood-based bio-energy

What Green Hearts Organization does

We promote bio-energy generated from sustainably harvested wood, and our profile presents it as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels. We prioritise sustainable harvesting techniques to protect the long-term health of forests.

General environmental information

Wood energy is only renewable when trees are grown and harvested in a managed way, so that new growth keeps pace with cutting. Unmanaged wood cutting for fuel can damage forests: in 2000, more than 14,000 charcoal kilns were counted in the Aberdare forests.⁴

General environmental information

Why the Aberdare Landscape Matters

The Aberdare range, also known as the Nyandarua Mountains, rises in central Kenya on the eastern wall of the Great Rift Valley and spans four counties, including Murang’a.¹ It is one of Kenya’s five main “water towers”.²

Everything in this section is background drawn from published sources. It describes the landscape, not the activities of Green Hearts Organization. Our own activities are set out in the areas above and on the Projects page.

Water catchment

Rain and mist captured by the mountain’s forests and moorland feed several river systems. The Kenya Forest Service describes the Aberdare forest as one of the country’s five main water towers.² Across Kenya, the five water towers cover only about 2% of the land yet supply more than 75% of renewable surface water, according to UNEP figures reported in 2015.⁴

Streams and rivers

Water from the range drains to the Tana and Athi river basins, the Ewaso Nyiro, and, on the western side, Lake Naivasha. Dams fed from the mountain supply much of the water used in Nairobi and nearby areas.¹²

Forest ecosystems

Vegetation changes with height: montane forest on the lower slopes, a broad belt of bamboo, then heath and moorland towards the peaks, which rise to about 4,000 m.¹²

Biodiversity

The range is an Important Bird Area and a Key Biodiversity Area within the East Afromontane hotspot, with more than 60 plant species found nowhere else.¹ The Kenya Forest Service plan records more than 770 plant species and over 290 bird species.²

Wildlife habitat

The forests are home to elephants, buffalo and leopards, and to the critically endangered mountain bongo.²³⁵

Climate regulation

Mist and rain occur through much of the year, from roughly 1,000 mm of rainfall a year on the drier north-western slopes to up to 3,000 mm in the south-east.¹ More generally, standing forest stores carbon and helps keep local temperatures and humidity steadier.

Ecosystem services

Ecosystem services are the benefits people receive from healthy nature. Here they include a reliable supply of clean water, hydropower from the Tana River, protection of soil on steep slopes, and habitat for wildlife.²

Community livelihoods

Water from the range supports towns, farms and power generation far beyond the forest edge.¹² The mountains also have historic and cultural importance for the Gikuyu people.¹

Forest restoration and protection

The Kenya Forest Service plan lists illegal logging, overgrazing, poaching, illegal water abstraction, damage to riverbanks and fires among the pressures on the forest.² Restoring tree cover and involving local communities in forest management are among the responses.⁴

Our geography

Wanjerere and the Murang’a side of the Aberdare

Wanjerere is part of Green Hearts’ geographical identity. It is a place name within the wider Aberdare forest, not a name for the national park.

The Aberdare ecosystem has two main parts under different management. Aberdare National Park, gazetted in 1950, is managed by the Kenya Wildlife Service.⁵ The surrounding Aberdare forest reserve is managed by the Kenya Forest Service.²

Wanjerere appears in the Kenya Forest Service’s Aberdare management plan as a forest station.² It is associated with the Murang’a side of the ecosystem: in 2025 it was named as one of four gates planned for Murang’a County’s access to the Aberdare forest for eco-tourism and conservation.⁶

Aberdare National ParkA protected area managed by the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Aberdare forest reserveSurrounding forest managed by the Kenya Forest Service.
WanjerereA forest station and place name on the Murang’a side of the ecosystem.
Kangema, Murang’a CountyThe area Green Hearts is connected with.

Where the background comes from

Sources

The general information on this page is written in our own words from these published sources. Facts about Green Hearts come from the organization’s own profile.

UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Nyandarua Mountains, Tentative List entry (submitted by the National Museums of Kenya, 2023).
Kenya Forest Service, Aberdare forest reserve management plan (PDF).
Nature Kenya, KBA in Focus: Aberdare Mountains (2024).
Yale Environment 360, In Kenya’s Mountain Forests, a New Path to Conservation (2015).
Kenya Wildlife Service, as listed in the Kenya Clearing-House Mechanism, Aberdare National Park.
The Mountain Journal, Murang’a to have access to Aberdare forest as part of promoting eco tourism (19 July 2025).

See the work in the field

Our documented projects show these areas of work in practice.

View our projects About Us