Kenyan blogger Bankelele is a big fan of trees, predicting...
...profits of between 1 million and 6 million shillings per acre ($13,000 - $80,000 per acre) all from an initial crop of tree seedlings that can be bought for about 10 shillings each.
If these returns are real, why haven't they been competed away? The risks include fire, pests and insecure property rights:
...one must also protect land from squatters, who may destroy trees for firewood, or to build homes in what they consider to be “unoccupied forest” land.
Ah well. It may surprise you to learn that some Kenyan property rights are well-defended - for instance, buying and selling property in Nairobi is something of a breeze, cheaper and nearly as fast as in OECD countries.
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