No one likes digging holes. Just imagine digging 70,000 of them.

Luckily, we didn’t have to. We planted about 70,000 tree and grass seed pods across our Amboseli area of operation in the last year, while hardly breaking a sweat. How did we do it, you might ask?

In an effort to make it easier to plant trees, Seedballs Kenya have created little balls of magic, aptly named ‘seedballs.’ These are indigenous tree and grass seeds encased in small balls of charcoal, created from the charcoal dust and chips that are the waste product of the charcoal industry.

The unassuming balls are designed to be spread across degraded areas and then left alone, protected by their charcoal casings while lying in wait for the rain. With moisture comes germination, and the charcoal then provides a nutrient boost to send the seedling on its way.

Our global climate is changing at an unprecedented rate, and human activities are the cause. Changing course is a huge challenge (particularly with the denialism perpetuated by certain interest groups), but every tree helps, and it’s something that each one of us can do. Here in Amboseli, we are trying to restore woodland areas that have been degraded through logging, charcoaling, and excessive pressure from herbivores.

The result will be a more productive, diverse ecosystem, and hopefully a small contribution to the tree cover of our planet. We are grateful for our partnership with Seedballs Kenya, whose network has distributed an extraordinary 7 million seedballs across East Africa since 2016.

You can learn more about Seedballs Kenya over at their website. As always, we are grateful for your support.

Photos: Shaun Mousley