Ethiopia Breaks World Record by Planting 353 Million Trees in 12 Hours

Ethiopia broke the world tree planting record after planting over 350 million tree seedlings in just 12 hours.

Ethiopian Minister for Innovation and Technology quoted the number of total trees planted in a bid to curb deforestation and climate change at 353 million.

Ethiopia is the second most populated country in Africa with a population of about 100 million people, which makes them more than 350 million seedlings planted in a day the most there ever has been.

India has been the worlds record holder of most trees planted in a day after they managed to plant a total of 50 million trees in 2016.

The tree planting exercise was inspired by the National Green Legacy initiative to grow four billion trees in the country by encouraging every citizen to plant at least 40 trees.

The green legacy strategy was created to create public awareness about Ethiopia’s environmental problems and to educate its citizens on the importance of green behavior, and how it positively changes environmental climate-related catastrophes.

The strategy recognizes that deforestation and forest degradation must be reversed if the country is to meet its development goals, as wood fuel accounts for more than 80 percent of household energy supply in Ethiopia and is particularly important in rural areas.

Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed whose ambition was to have Ethiopians plant trees in support of the ‘Go Green’ campaigns had all public offices closed to enable all civil servants to participate in the exercise.

Ethiopia is one of the worlds arid countries and as a result, is prone to drought.

The United Nations (UN), had previously warned that there was a need for the Ethiopian government to take action against the effects of deforestation.

According to the UN, as at the 2000s Ethiopian deforestation had significantly reduced to four percent from 35 percent only a century earlier.

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