Members’ Achievements

Rhino-Shaped Forest

That Can be Seen from the Sky

The rhino-shaped forest lies on the flight path to Europe and, as it matures, will be visible from the air – a striking Memo to the world reminding us of the fragility of our planet and the wildlife that inhabits it, and the urgent need to protect it.

Forest-covered land in Kenya has decreased from approximately ten per cent to six per cent over the last decade, and Kenya has received much adverse global attention for this.

Deforestation results in land becoming degraded, leading to a critically negative impact on the eco-system. This affects not only plant and animal life but also the wellbeing of human communities who rely on the fertility of the land for their own prosperity. In response, MCC Member Jochen Zeitz, co-founded The Long Run, a membership organisation of nature-based tourism businesses, which collectively conserve over 23-million acres of biodiversity, improving the lives of 750,000 people around the world. Jochen also founded the ZEITZ foundation, which supports a number of sustainable projects in Kenya. In 2020, the ZEITZ foundation launched a reforestation project to help preserve the eco-systems and enrich the biodiversity in areas that had become degraded as a result of deforestation. The ZEITZ foundation set aside wildlife exclusion zones for growing new forest cover over several areas on Segera Conservancy, a 50,000 acre wildlife habitat in Laikipia, with the aim of planting two million tree seedlings over the next ten years. To create awareness of this most critical aspect of loss of biodiversity through climate change, an area covering 150 hectares was mapped out on Segera Conservancy in the shape of a giant rhino, inside which 147,712 tree seedlings have been planted to create a spectacular rhino-shaped forest.

Using Google maps, the forest was created by superimposing the outline of a rhino over the selected area, and then it was mapped out on the ground using GPS coordinates.

With the involvement of local communities, the Rhino-shaped forest was planted with six species of Acacia, selected by fellow MCC Member Charlie Dyer, for their suitability to the area and hardiness to the local environment and climate.

Planting started in 2020, and although the project has been hampered by the drought in 2021 and 2022 – poignantly caused almost certainly, by climate change – the project is still on-going. As well as the Rhino-shaped forest, over 321,000 trees have been planted to date, creating jobs and awareness of the need to increase our forest-cover among the neighbouring communities.