Ethiopia Bids to Set World Tree-Planting Record Today
ADDIS ABEBA – Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, together with government officials and community members, planted trees in the city of Arba Minch,as the country bids for world tree-planting record today.
He arrived in the city, located in SNNP region, for his Green Legacy initiative this morning, said the Prime Minister office, a day after Abiy urged Ethiopians to go out and plant trees.
The initiative aims to counter the effects of deforestation and climate change in the drought-prone country.
In the process, the east African nation hopes to set a new world record with a bid to plant 200 million trees in a single day.
The current World Record for planting trees in a single day is held by India, which used 800,000 volunteers to plant more than 50 million trees in 2016.
“Today Ethiopia is set in our attempt to break the world record together for a Green Legacy,” said the PM office.
The Green Legacy project’s aim is to plant a total of four billion trees in the current rainy season. The UN says Ethiopia’s forest coverage declined from 35% of total land in the early 20th Century to a little above 4% in the 2000s.
