Ethiopia Plants More Than 350 Million Trees In Just 12 Hours, A New World Record
Ethiopia Planted more than 353 million trees in just 12 hours on July 29, 2019, and officials say that it is a new world record!
The trees were planted as part of the “Green Legacy” campaign that is targeted to bring back forests in the country and is spearheaded by Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of the Country.
Millions of citizens of the country were asked to take part in the “Green Legacy” campaign and just within the first 6 hours of the campaign, PM Ahmed said that they have planted 150 million trees.
#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
After 12 hours, Getahun Mekuria, the Minister for Innovation and Technology of Ethiopia, said that a total of 353,633,660 trees were planted in the country.
BREAKING NEWS!!
ETHIOPIA PLANTED
353,633,660 TREE SEEDLINGS IN 12Hours#GreenLegacyEthiopia#PMOEthiopia pic.twitter.com/TewfqNzXMN— Dr.-Ing. Getahun Mekuria (@DrGetahun) July 29, 2019
The “Green Legacy” tree-planting program was recorded by using 1,000 websites, where authorities were tasked to count the number of seedlings that were planted by volunteers.
In 2017, India set the world record after 2 million volunteers planted nearly 66 million trees in just 12 hours.
Nearly 80 percent of the population of Ethiopia depends on agriculture as their livelihood, but, their agricultural land is suffering due to soil erosion, deforestation, and drought.
Studies suggest that reforestation is one of the most effective and cheapest methods to fight climate change.
Researchers concluded that a worldwide tree-planting program can possibly remove 2/3rds of all carbon emission that is released by humans into the atmosphere.
Two years ago, more than 20 countries in Africa, which includes Ethiopia, pledged to restore more than 100 million hectares of land under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative.
The “Green Legacy” encourages every citizen of the country to plant at least 40 seedlings over the summer.
To take part in the “Green Legacy” program, a number of public offices were closed for one day so they could take part in the program.