Reforestation Tours
Make a positive impact on your next adventure and help us plant 10,000 trees in two weeks!
Kenya & Tanzania - October 2025
Kenya & Tanzania - October 2026
Colombia - 2026
Kenya and Tanzania Forest Restoration tour. October 2025
Kenya’s deforestation accounts for approximately 54,000 hectares of forest a year. Forest cover has reduced to 7 per cent of the country. Similarly, Tanzania’s national demand for food and wood is increasing faster than supply, resulting in a loss of 400,000 ha of forest per year and over 60 per cent of the country affected by deforestation and degradation.
In over two decades of owning an adventure travel company and leading cycle tours around the world, including through Kenya and Tanzania, we watched this deforestation occur before our eyes, year on year. This prompted us to begin incorporating tree planting on our tours, working with schools and local plant nurseries.
In 2022 Mandy and I sold our travel company and began finding out where we fit in the native forest restoration industry and planning how we could return to Kenya and Tanzania to continue with, and grow, these planting projects.
And this is where you come in:
We are travelling back to Kenya and Tanzania in October 2025 with 10-12 keen people to plant trees! We will work with local tree nurseries to buy their plants and employ local labour to work alongside us, with a goal to plant 10,000 trees on 4 different reforestation projects over a two week period. In between projects we’ll get to experience the wildlife and culture that East Africa is famous for so it’s not all sweat and hard graft!.
This is more than just a feel good project, we aim to help grow forever forests that will benefit generations to come, preserve water catchments and create employment. You will get hot, sweaty and dirty and you will even pay for the pleasure! as the costs of the trees, and labour to help us, is a part of your trip cost. But don’t worry, we will make sure you have comfortable accommodation in lodges, glamping tents and guesthouses with hot showers and great food! Plus you’ll get to work alongside local people and school children and learn first hand about their lives.
Not only is East Africa in dire need of having trees planted, another huge positive is that we can plant around 4 times as many trees in East Africa than we can here in NZ for the same money. So for less than the cost of planting 1000 trees here in New Zealand, you can plant 1000 trees AND get to experience East Africa while you are doing it! Plus being a tropical region they will grow so much faster and absorb more carbon far more quickly than they will here in our temperate climate.
The downside of course is our carbon footprint in travelling to and from Africa. Depending on which carbon calculator you use it needs around 5 forever trees to be planted to off-set each person’s travel. On this planting tour, each person who comes along will fund 1000 trees and personally plant at least 500, (with the other 500 being planted by the local labour we will employ to work alongside us). It sounds a lot but it works out to be about 60 trees each per planting day. So very achievable :0)
Note: Our goal of 10,000 trees planted on this tour is based on a group size of 10-12 people.
Itinerary: 13th to 27th October 2025.
Day 1 : Arrive in Nairobi. If you arrive today or even a day or two earlier we will arrange for you to be met at the airport and transferred to our accommodation. We meet in the evening for a rundown on what’s to come over the next 2 weeks.
Meals: D. Accommodation: Glamping safari tent.
Day 2 : We head to our first planting project at a local Nairobi primary school where we will work alongside the school children and teachers to begin the creation of an urban micro-forest on the school grounds. We aim to plant 500-600 trees today as we take the first steps to bring nature back to the schoolyard. In the afternoon we transfer out of the city to our next project.
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Lodge
Day 3 : We are working in conjunction with a community conservation organisation committed to protect, conserve and restore an endangered forest. Today with the help of a local team that we’ll employ from nearby villages, we aim to plant over 1500 indigenous trees that we will buy from the community nursery.
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Lodge
Day 4 : Continuing on from our previous days efforts, our goal is to plant another 1500 plus trees today and learn some more about the work that the Forest Trust has been doing here for over a decade.
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Lodge
Day 5 : Today we head towards Tanzania. After crossing the border our destination today is Arusha City, the safari capital of Tanzania.
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Guesthouse
Day 6 : A relaxed start today. We get picked up by our safari vehicles and head into the Great Rift Valley. We spend the afternoon game viewing and exploring Lake Manyara National Park, home to abundant wildlife and the elusive tree climbing lions.
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Safari Lodge
Day 7 : An early start to make the most of the cool morning. We return to Lake Manyara National Park for a morning of game viewing. After lunch we head into Tarangire National Park, known for its large herds of elephants and striking baobab trees.
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Glamping safari tents.
Day 8 : Another early start and a final morning of game viewing in Tarangire National Park. In the afternoon we transfer back to Arusha.
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Guesthouse
Day 9 : Today we head south and into the Usambara Mountains. On the way we stop to check out the large community nursery where we will be buying our trees from for the next planting project.
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Mountain Lodge
Day 10 : The Usambara Mountains is one of the most densely populated rural areas of Tanzania and only retains a very small part of the original forest that once covered this area. The planting project here is working to restore a forest reserve that was destroyed by fire in 2015. Today we aim to plant at least 1500 indigenous trees.
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Mountain Lodge
Day 11 : You know the score! Today it’s another 1500 trees in the ground!! Once again we will employ a team of helpers from the surrounding village’s to work with us to achieve our goal.
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Mountain Lodge
Day 12 : Leaving the cool of the mountains we head to the Indian Ocean and the historic Arabic port town of Bagamoyo. Once a major slave trading port, Bagamoyo is a relaxed tropical coastal town, rich in culture and history.
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Beachside Lodge
Day 13 : Today we’re planting mangroves, in the mud...... so get ready to get filthy!!! With only a 3 hour window over low tide for planting we’ll need to get busy to plant our 1500 mangrove trees today. Make the most of the rest of the day exploring Bagamoyo town and markets.
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Beachside Lodge
Day 14 : Our last planting day of the tour. We head back out at low tide to continue with restoring the coastal mangrove forests. These forests are a vital part of the coastal ecosystem and a breeding ground for marine life, but have been decimated by decades of damage. This is our last chance to reach our total planting goal of 10,000 trees for the tour. You do the maths!
Meals: BLD. Accommodation: Beachside Lodge
Day 15 : Onward travel.
Meals: B. Accommodation: N/A