A group of citizens in Ethiopia joined together earlier this week to plant 350 million trees. The impressive feat took place over the course of one day and is part of a larger campaign to counteract the effects of climate change and deforestation.
Getahun Mekuria, Ethiopia’s minister for innovation and technology, announced on Twitter that the nation had planted 353 million trees in just 12 hours. (WOW – that is incredible!) Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is leading the campaign, whose goal is to plant a total of close to four billion trees. The initiative is asking each citizen to plant at least 40 seedlings this summer.
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The well-coordinated effort aims to help with climate change in a nation that is plagued by droughts. The United Nations has indicated that forest coverage in Ethiopia has declined by close to 30 percent from the early 20th century to the early 2000s. In the early part of the 21st century, about four percent of the country was covered by forests.
Ethiopia broke a world record when they planted 353 million trees in one day. The previous record occurred in India, when, in 2016, volunteers planted fifty million trees in a single day.
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The tree planting was a group effort, with staff from the African Union, the United Nations, and foreign embassies in Ethiopia pitching in. Dr. Dan Ridley-Ellis, the head of the Centre for Wood Science and Technology at Edinburgh Napier University, told The Guardian:
“This truly impressive feat is not just the simple planting of trees, but part of a huge and complicated challenge to take account of the short- and long-term needs of both the trees and the people. The forester’s mantra ‘the right tree in the right place’ increasingly needs to consider the effects of climate change, as well as the ecological, social, cultural and economic dimension.”
We agree with Dr. Ridley-Ellis, and commend Ethiopia and its citizens for their significant contribution towards taking care of Mother Earth.
