Kenya, like any other country, faces environmental problems such as soil erosion, deforestation rates, and unsustainable land practices. From the insights of the Kenya Forest Service, the country loses about 50,000 hectares annually, meaning it has drastic impacts on the ecosystems, water resources, and agricultural productivity. This has a huge impact on the food security and livelihoods of millions of Kenyans who rely heavily on the land value chain.
As the country celebrates 60 years of environmental diplomacy, the country still faces major challenges in the environmental education system and its inability to provide essential connections between academic learning and actual solutions to ecological problems.
In 2017, Kenya adopted a new curriculum, the Competency-based Curriculum (CBC) that replaced the 8-4-4 more theoretical system. 2023 marked the first cohort of students under the new program to enter junior secondary after sitting for their national exams. Subjects taught in Junior secondary school are English, Mathematics, Pre-technical studies, Kiswahili, Integrated Science, Social Studies, Business Studies, Agriculture, Religious Education, Health Education, Sports, Physical Education, and Life Skills Education.
Despite the triple planetary crisis and increasing impacts of climate change among the young generation, climate literacy has not been mainstreamed fully in the curriculum to equip students with the appropriate skills needed to adapt and mitigate and be bold enough to act for the climate.
Although the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) integrates environmental studies, students have no framework to actualize such knowledge on making concrete impacts on the community in addressing ecological challenges
Considering the underlying problem of land degradation, which requires inventive and sustainable approaches like including the local community and young people in the restoration processes, it is still a challenge.
Why is environmental literacy crucial to restoration?
Today’s young generation is the most in history, whereby the majority of them in developing countries like Kenya depend on land and natural resources. They are often the first and most affected by the impacts of desertification, land degradation, and drought, and yet they lack the basics of tapping the potential that the land has.
By establishing the correlation between what a child learns in a classroom and the actual practices in the ecosystems of Kenya, the country can raise a generation of ecological problem solvers ready to combat issues like deforestation and soil erosion.
Adopting the Miyawaki approach method within the Kenyan context of CBC can assist in rehabilitating Kenya’s degraded landscapes and prepare students with ecological education and skills for development Integrating Miyawaki projects into the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) ensures students participate in the rehabilitation of degraded areas in line with ecological concepts spelled out in the curriculum.
Shift in environmental education is a significant way of combating Kenya’s environmental problems, making it imperative for policymakers and educators to give practical approaches that interconnect theoretical learning with practical ecological actions.
Owing to its diverse ecosystems and thus rich diversity of species native to the country, Kenya is suited for the Miyawaki forest method. This innovative approach can help offer specific solutions to some environmental issues affecting the country, like restoration of the degraded ASALs, rehabilitation of the green spaces in our urban centers, and restoration of marginal agricultural land.
The main principles of the Miyawaki method are focusing on the planting of indigenous tree species in large groups because the growth of such trees accelerates and the procedure has a great impact on increasing the biodiversity, which helps the country’s outstanding climatic regions of Kenya. The Miyawaki technique can restore the ecological balance of ASALs where conventional afforestation processes are unlikely to succeed given the challenges in increasing soil fertility and water retention.
The Miyawaki method is directly linked to environmental Studies since it offers solutions for conservation processes that students learn in school. This way, students get involved in planting native trees and recovering ecosystems, which strengthens their knowledge of the correct management of the land
