Ethiopia has made headlines for planting more than 350 million trees in 12 hours as part of the country’s Green Legacy restoration program. Spearheaded by the country’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the goal is to offset some of the damage done by humans and global warming.
Within the first six hours, Ahmed said 150 million trees were planted. “We’re halfway to our goal,” Ahmed tweeted. He also implored Ethiopians to “build on the momentum in the remaining hours.”
At the end of the 12 hours, 353,633,660 trees were in the ground. Ethiopia took the title from India who in 2017 set the world record and planted 1.5 million trees in 12 hours with the help of 66 million volunteers.
#GreenLegacy is a vision for the next generation. It is creating a blueprint for them and showing them the way. #GreenEthiopia #HealthyEthiopia 🇪🇹 pic.twitter.com/TFudQhiAKc
— Amir Aman, MD (@amirabiy) July 29, 2019
The overall goal for the country is to plant four billion trees during the country’s rainy season between May and October. According to Farm Africa organization, less than four percent of east Africa’s land is forested compared to 30% at the end of the 19th century.
In 2017, Ethiopia reportedly joined 20 other African countries and pledged to restore 100 million hectares of land as part of the African Landscape Restoration.
