Justdiggit, a green tech charity, is combining AI, satellite imagery, and mobile applications to advance large-scale landscape restoration across Tanzania and Kenya. Their approach focuses on ancient rainwater harvesting methods, community collaboration, and data-driven site selection to cool the planet and regenerate degraded land.
- Restored 500,000 hectares using rainwater harvesting bunds
- Trained farmers on tree recovery leading to 23 million trees planted
- Planning to expand restoration to 100 million hectares by 2040
What happened
Justdiggit has scaled its landscape restoration across East Africa by using semi-circular bunds, an ancient water-capturing technique, aided by AI, high-resolution satellite imagery, and mobile apps to select suitable project sites. The charity’s focus on aligning techniques to soil types, rainfall patterns, land slope, and community ownership has been instrumental in its efforts across Tanzania and Kenya.
Besides bunds, Justdiggit introduced the treecovery method, which revitalizes trees that have been cut down. This program has educated local smallholder farmers, resulting in the restoration of over 23 million trees in six years. These nature-based solutions directly improve soil health, water availability, and carbon storage, contributing to the goal of resuscitating degraded landscapes.
Why it matters
The charity’s mission addresses global warming by cooling the planet and fighting land degradation in Africa. Their work shows how combining traditional environmental knowledge with modern technology and community involvement can produce large-scale ecological restoration and climate mitigation.
Sustainability is dependent on community adoption. By emphasizing tangible benefits such as improved crop yields, healthier soil, better water retention, and grazing management, Justdiggit ensures that local farmers and pastoralists are motivated to maintain restored areas. This locally focused approach helps safeguard restoration efforts beyond the charity’s direct intervention.
What to watch next
Justdiggit aims to drastically increase its impact, targeting restoration of 100 million hectares by 2040. This scaling will involve further integration of AI-driven site analysis and expansion of community training programs to maximize ecological and economic outcomes across East Africa and potentially beyond.
The use of digital tools to monitor project effectiveness, optimize resource allocation, and encourage community-led land management will be critical to the charity’s success. Observers should watch how technology adoption evolves on the ground and how Justdiggit leverages data to enhance restoration strategies and achieve sustainable, large-scale green recovery.