Anthropology of Global Climate Urgency
Doctoral Network
Eco-Media in Urban Kenya
Tree Planting & Forest Protection as a Response to Climate Urgency
Fieldwork Updates by Amber Caine - March 2025
At this stage of my fieldwork, I have spent three months on online ethnography, followed by six months of in-person fieldwork situated in Kenya. During this time, my research has deepened and evolved, focusing solely on Nairobi and its urban forests and green spaces. I have established two primary field sites, two wildly different urban forests: Oloolua and Karura.
Oloolua Forest (pictured below) covers an area of 618 hectares, which has been fragmented into eight parts as a result of infrastructure development, including the Standard Gauge Railway and roads that carve through the forest. A protected forest, gazetted in 1932 yet currently unfenced, Oloolua continues to experience threats of encroachment into forest land. Having witnessed the loss of wildlife and the dissection of the forest over a number of years, a group of concerned forest neighbours is currently attempting to change Oloolua’s fate. Through ecotourism, they are hoping to boost forest conservation and community livelihoods. I have been spending time with the ecotourism team, as well as the youth-led tree nursery group, as they work towards establishing a sustainable model for forest protection and community income.
The lion’s share of my in-person ethnography, however, has taken place in Karura Forest, an urban upland forest covering an area of around 1,000 hectares. Comanaged by a community forest association, Friends of Karura Forest, and a government organization, the Kenya Forest Service, Karura is typically presented as a conservation success story and an essential green lung within Nairobi.
Walking into the forest, I feel a shift in temperature; the air becomes cooler and crisper. When school children visit the forest, they are usually encouraged to appreciate this transition in air quality by taking a few deep breaths, in and out. My sensory experience changes depending on where I find myself within the forest. Walking through dense indigenous forest, a tunnel of dark, leafy foliage, I hear the buzz of insects and intermittent bird song. When I reach the tall eucalyptus trees, they allow dappled light, their branches sway above, creating a soothing hush, complimented by a fresh, slightly medicinal scent.
I initially positioned myself in Karura’s indigenous tree nursery, where I engaged in participant observation, collecting seeds in the forest, fetching soil, planting and repotting seedlings, preparing tree planting sites, and engaging in the aftercare of weeding and watering. This worked as an important counterpoint to my digital ethnography. When following digital representations of tree planting online, I found that the emphasis was placed on tree planting numbers. Beyond the snapshot moment when a seedling is placed into a pre-dug hole, very few details are typically shared. In contrast, in Karura, I learnt of their distinction between “tree planting” and “tree growing”. I found Karura’s tree growing approach to be multifaceted, from seed collection and germination to treeling aftercare. It involved “tree caring”, thoughtfully designed practices for tree survival and the nurturing of a full ecosystem.
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In talks with my interlocutors, there was a strong emphasis on restoration and biodiversity. In 2009, Karura was made up of 75% exotic tree species and 25% indigenous tree species. Currently, indigenous trees make up over 60% of the forest, and exotic trees have decreased to less than 40%. The goal, stated by Karura management, is to return the forest to 100% indigenous trees and shrubs. Attending eco walks and school tours, I was struck by the term “selfish trees”, which was used to speak of the exotic forests planted during Kenya’s colonisation. The pine forest, a remnant from a long-forgotten paper industry, is often used as an example of a “selfish forest”, as very little observable plant and animal life exists within it. Organized into neat rows, each pine tree stands tall and seemingly detached. The indigenous forest, on the other hand, is considered to be “healthy forest”, tangled and teaming with life. It is, of course, not that binary; there are many areas where indigenous and exotic trees and shrubs coexist, but this framing of the two gives an indication of the mentality towards different types of trees and the vision for the forest’s future.
Within Karura, growing and safeguarding indigenous trees is also presented as a way to preserve natural heritage. Many of the indigenous trees that line walking paths are marked with their local name, scientific name, and their traditional use. Designed to educate visitors, these markers demonstrate pride in the indigenous forest and the trees that inhabit it. Forest management also highlights a history of political resistance. A significant archaeological site within the forest, the Mau Mau caves, were named after Mau Mau freedom fighters who used the caves as a base when challenging British colonial power in the 1950s. Wangari’s Corner is situated at the site where the late Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wangari Maathai, along with other conservationists and community members, faced violent backlash while protesting Karura Forest encroachment in the late '90s. It commemorates Maathai’s struggle to protect Karura and works as an effective piece of living, or growing, history. An area of around 18 hectares, Wangari’s Corner was cleared of eucalyptus trees and replanted with a combination of indigenous trees in 2018. It is now used as an example of how quickly indigenous forest can grow and thrive.
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This vision for a fully indigenous, biodiverse Karura Forest isn’t necessarily shared, or believed, by all Nairobians. In 2024, Karura Forest management received a special user’s licence to begin the felling of aged, exotic tree species, namely, eucalyptus, Cyprus, and pine. Tree felling of this kind had been prohibited since 2018, due to a national logging moratorium. When tree logging began in October 2024, it resulted in public outcry online. A range of theories about the motivation behind the logging emerged.
Online platforms, like X, fed confusion, as facts and inaccuracies became interwoven and tricky to untangle. As land grabbing, as it is colloquially termed in Kenya, is an ongoing issue when it comes to Kenya’s forested land, heightened scepticism of this kind is not unwarranted. The current political climate, where there is often a chasm between what is said and what is done, has created a state of hyper-vigilance. The anti-government sentiments from the strongly-supported Finance Bill protests that began in June 2024 are still reverberating through Kenyan society. The general public is currently poised to peel back any wool that may be pulled over their eyes, which makes defending environmental work that does not fit neatly into preconceived notions of environmental harm: tree cutting, and environmental good: tree planting, a greater challenge.
Conferences & Presentations
• Presentation on Ecomedia in Urban Kenya: “Selfish Tree” Felling, Indigenous Reforestation & Claims of Land Grabbing in Nairobi’s Karura Forest, for World Anthropology Day, organized by KU Leuven’s Social & Cultural Anthropology Department. February 2025, Leuven, Belgium
• Participation in ‘Urban Greenprints: Policy and Action for Urban Forestry in Kenya’, workshop organized by GLFx Nairobi, situated at CIFOR-ICRAF. February 2025, Nairobi, Kenya
• Research Experience Presentation on Digital Ethnography Methods & Process for the KU Leuven advanced Master of Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies (CADES) Methods Course, December 2024, Leuven, Belgium (Remote Presentation)
• Research Presentation: ‘From “Digital Forests” to Urban “Tree Growing” in Nairobi’ for the KU Leuven Plant Institute, September 2024, Leuven, Belgium