Land cover in Kenya is about 1.9% of the total land cover; way below the UN recommended 10%. Massive deforestation in Kenya has taken place at two levels: one level that involved government excision of gazetted forests in the pretext of settling squatters; and the second level involved rampant community use of forests. High levels of poverty have also meant that most of the energy needs by the community is met from Forest wood fuel. A combination of these factors, coupled with low levels of community awareness on the importance of forests in securing people’s future, led to degradation of forest cover. In essence, communities need to meet their energy needs without compromising their own ability and that of the future generations to meet the same needs.

In this regard, ACC initiated community energy saving projects to help conserve and minimise the impact of household energy needs on forest cover.
In order to increase and conserve forest cover, ACC implements this project at two levels: the first level involves horizontal learning where communities in different landscapes are taken to other areas to learn from novel conservation measures other communities have taken, especially the use of energy saving Jikos; and the second level is planting of indigenous trees to increase forest cover. To ensure multiplier effect, those community members taken on horizontal learning experiences are given instruction to become trainers to propagate the exercise. Through the afforestation programme, mainly done by women in the cultural villages, visitors are encouraged to sponsor a tree and funds raised are used for sustaining the project.