For this initiative, the company has partnered with Seedballs, a reforestation project in Kenya.

The company has already announced a partnership with Seedballs Kenya and several NGOs, during which the seeds of multiple indigenous tree species will be planted in different areas across Kenya where natural reforestation is unlikely or not possible at all.

As the seeds grow into trees, they’ll help neutralise the emissions of the Bolt rides and Bolt Food deliveries.

On top of the pledge to match every ride on the platform on Earth Day with the planting of a new tree, Bolt will help plant 11 million new trees across Kenya. „We’re growing new trees to neutralise carbon emissions from our services as well as stopping erosion, water runoff and improving land fertility in the country”, it is stated in an official press release by Bolt.

Seedbolts: an efficient way of reforesting at scale

Kenya faces some serious environmental challenges, such as deforestation, soil erosion, land degradation, desertification, loss of biodiversity, water scarcity and pollution from industrial activity.

Just 7.4% of the country is covered in forest, that’s 2.6% short of the constitutionally accepted 10%.

Local charcoal demand plays the biggest role in this tree loss, with charcoal being the key source of energy for 82% of urban and 34% of rural households.

"Coincidentally, the waste created by charcoal production is exactly where Seedbolts begin — Seedballs Kenya and its co-founder Teddy Kinyanjui have devised an ingenious and efficient solution to replant local woodland areas quickly and affordably".

Seedbolts are also one of the most efficient ways to reforest areas at scale, as they do not require digging, watering or fertilising — they just need to be thrown onto soil and the weather takes it from there. After rainfall, the charcoal coating melts away and the seed falls into the moist soil where it starts to grow.

Why Seedbolts?

According to Bolt officials, planting Seedbolts is efficient - Seedbolts can be distributed at any time of the year and will wait until the first rains to start germinating, accessible - large quantities of Seedbolts can be easily dispersed over wide areas that are often hard to reach, local - the Seedbolts are sourced from the Kenya Forestry Research Institute who keeps a stock of seed of about 220 tree species collected from more than 600 provinces across Kenya, and also traceable, as Bolt users can see where Seedbolts were planted by checking the map.

"Throughout 2022, we’ll be helping to neutralise those CO2 emissions by spreading 25 tonnes of indigenous seeds in Kenya — equivalent to planting over 11 million tree seeds".

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org (formerly Earth Day Network), including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.