The Baobab tree is also known as the "Tree of Life" to the local communities in the arid and semi-arid regions of Kenya where it grows wildly. Many were purposely planted by our ancestors, who understood their benefits centuries and millennia ago, for future generations. The Adansonia digitata (Malvaceae), the Baobab, is indigenous to Africa, and the east African species is particular to this region. In the past 10 years, and probably before, hundreds of Baobab trees have been senselessly chopped down along the Kenya Coast to make way for real estate developments, highways, monocultural agriculture, and are currently being sold to foreigners to decorate their amusement parks. 

The Baobab tree is a source of income for hundreds of thousands of families across the Kenya Coast counties and is sacred in several communities. The fruit, leaves, bark and roots, of the tree are nutritionally and economically beneficial to the poor communities where the trees are found. The Baobab fruit is  globally recognized as a super, super fruit because of its unmatched nutrient density. If properly processed and distributed, it can eradicate the malnutrition experienced by infants and the general population across the nation and fortify our grains and other foods. The socio-economic benefits of this precious tree are endless and its wanton destruction is unforgivable. 

This petition is to appeal to authorities in the Kenya government, the UNEP, and IUCN, to immediately ban the "carnage' of Baobab trees, protect them, and place them on the World List of Threatened Trees/Species.