Kenyan school children using slingshots to plant trees

NAIROBI, Kenya – School children in Kenya are helping to fight deforestation by planting seeds using slingshots.

It’s part of an initiative by the company SeedBalls Kenya, which makes and sells seedballs globally. It encourages children to have slingshot competitions using the charcoal-covered seeds instead of stones.

About 2 million seedballs have been planted in Kenya in the past year and a half in what has been called “guerrilla gardening.”

Kenya’s government has recognized the threat from deforestation and earlier this year imposed a temporary logging ban that was extended in May by another six months.

SeedBalls Kenya recycles coal dust it collects around the capital, Nairobi. It buys the seeds from the Kenya Forest Research Institute.