Nairobi – Kenyan environmentalist Dr Isaac Kalua Green has challenged governments, corporations, and climate campaigns to move beyond merely counting trees planted and instead measure their actual survival rates.
Green, Chief Steward of the Green Africa Foundation, made this call after presenting his new book, Come Back and Check, to Prince Albert II of Monaco at the Prince’s Palace.
The meeting also served to renew a two-decade partnership between the Green Africa Foundation and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. Both organisations will explore broader cooperation on climate action, conservation, biodiversity, and community livelihoods across Africa.
Green explained that his new book’s central argument is straightforward: tree planting is only the initial step, and climate claims must be substantiated by evidence of survival.
“For years, we have measured our progress by what we plant on the day of planting, not by what is still standing when no one is watching,” Green stated.
He urged the Kenyan government and other governments to verify previous planting efforts before announcing new targets.
“My appeal to the Kenyan government, and to governments everywhere, is simple: come back and check what you planted before you announce what you plan to plant next,” he said.
In Come Back and Check, Green applies the same rigorous scrutiny to his own Plant Your Age campaign, which reports an estimated 981 million tree-growing contributions since 2011.
He revealed that an audit showed the campaign could only fully answer a fraction of the questions required to establish survival rates.
The book draws lessons from forest recovery in South Korea, farmer-led regeneration in Niger, and a government audit in the Philippines. It proposes common approaches, including a Count What Survives Standard, an Evidence Ladder, and a Living Tree Account, which governments and companies could utilise to track environmental commitments.
The presentation to Prince Albert marked another chapter in a relationship spanning approximately 20 years.
Prince Albert visited Green Africa Foundation project sites in Kitui in 2010 and subsequently wrote the foreword to Green’s earlier book, Green for Life. During their meeting, he commended Green’s work and pledged continued collaboration.
The discussions also explored potential synergies between the Monaco foundation’s programmes in climate, biodiversity, water, and ocean protection, and Green Africa Foundation initiatives such as the Green Africa Villages model and the Plant Your Age campaign.
Romain Ciarlet, Vice-President and CEO of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, stated that the foundation’s renewed focus in Africa includes working with communities to improve livelihoods and mobilising private capital for scalable African enterprises.
“We are happy to discuss ways of collaborating with the Green Africa Foundation in this endeavour,” Ciarlet said.
The meeting also coincided with Green taking on a new role as Chairman of the Board of the Green Nairobi Company.
Green noted that the company is already engaging potential international partners to explore ways of delivering climate and environmental infrastructure at scale.
