2022 Sustainable Business Report

56 | SAFARICOM SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS REPORT 2022 KPI SUMMARY OUR STAKEHOLDERS OUR BUSINESS OUR MATERIAL TOPICS Offsetting carbon by planting trees We are cognisant of the far-reaching effects of human activities on climate change and the need to plant trees to offset our CO 2 emissions. Accordingly, in 2018 we entered into a partnership agreement with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) to implement a tree growing and forest conservation programme aimed at improving Kenya’s forest cover. The long-term objective of the programme is to work in collaboration with the KFS and Community Forest Associations (CFAs) to plant five million indigenous trees in five years, leading to the rehabilitation of 5 000 hectares of degraded forests. Between October 2019 and July 2021, the three partners worked together to plant over 750 000 trees on 750 hectares of land in three sites – South Marmanet in Laikipia County, Kieni Forest in Kiambu County, and Kimondi in Nandi County. KFS allocated tree growing areas in these gazetted forests for the Safaricom programme, and provided technicalsupport on suitable tree species and best planting and growing practices. CFAs are involved in the establishment of tree nurseries and the nurturing of seedlings in readinessfor planting. CFAs also provide labour for site preparation, planting and maintenance that includes security to ensure the growth of the planted seedlings. The tree growing programme provides both adaptation and mitigation benefits. Tree growing increases the resilience of Kenya’s forests to climate change impacts. In addition, forest products can provide safety nets to local communities when climate change causes crop failures. In terms of mitigation, tree growing reduces the harmful effects of greenhouse gas emissions by creating carbon sinks and helps to offset the CO 2 emissions from Safaricom’s operations. In partnership with local communities and the KFS, we planted 372 000 trees in FY22, bringing the total number of trees planted to date to just over one million. We are behind in our planting target largely due to the destruction of young trees by wildfires and livestock as most of the forests are not fenced. We are now working with the KFS and CFAs to educate and sensitise local communities, thereby mitigating these challenges. NUMBER OF TREES PLANTED OVER THREE YEARS (CUMULATIVE) FY20 FY21 FY22 Trees planted 144 000 650 000 1 022 000