Ethiopia Has Most Likely Broken A World Record By Simply Planting 350 Million Tress All Across The Country In 12 Hours

Source: https://static.euronews.com/

According to officials, Ethiopia could have possibly gotten a new world record by planting about 350 million trees in their country, all in a single day.

This campaign of tree-planting was started as part of a national initiative with the end goal of planting 4 billion trees all across the country in one summer. Part of this initiative is the prevention of further deforestation and climate change in their land which has a lot of drought.

The Guardian has reported that each citizen of the country is being encouraged to plant at the very least, 40 seedlings while public offices are even offering their employees days off so that they can take part in the planting.

Getahun Mekuria, Minister of Innovation and Technology of Ethiopia was the bearer of good news as he tweeted that 350 million trees were planted within 12 hours. The possible world record came because: “If proven, the achievement is truly record-breaking, shattering the current world record for planting trees in a single day, which stands at 50 million trees planted in India in 2016.”

The country’s media, along with the help of employees of foreign embassies and international and regional organizations such as the United Nations and African Union have been encouraging the public to exert extra effort in planting and caring for their indigenous trees and taking part in the initiative as much as they are able to.


Source: https://www.ethioembassy.org.uk/

BBC has reported that this exercise is led by the Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed and it’s called the Green Legacy Initiative. The tree-planting has been happening simultaneously all over the country in 1,000 different locations. Bad press and critics of the Prime Minister are making claims that this environmental campaign is merely being done as a distraction to Ethiopians as to what is really happening in their country with regards to internecine warfare and grave troubles between ethnic groups that have already driven an approximate of 2.5 million citizens out of their homes.

These national conflicts are also rooted to the fact that the country is struggling with bad agricultural conditions, where they are forced to live in barren lands for the last decades because of poor land-use policies and an underdevelopment of what used to be lands with vegetation and greenery.

The United Nations have reported that Ethiopia’s forest coverage has had an enormous decline from 35% of total land in the 1900’s, to only 4% in the 2000’s. Xinhua interviewed bus driver Bekele Benti who is working in the country’s capital Addis Ababa, and he said:

“As a bus driver, with frequent trips across the country, I have witnessed the extent of deforestation in different parts of Ethiopia. It’s really frustrating to see forest-covered areas turned to be bare lands within a few years. This is a great opportunity for me and fellow Ethiopians to contribute to our country’s better future towards a green and environmentally well-positioned Ethiopia.”

Government officials are hoping that this tree-planting initiative will greatly help the improvement of people’s living conditions. The hope this will be the beginning of the usage of agricultural plots and rural economies, and improve the climate stability for future generations to come.

This initiative also has the possibility to kickstart progression towards social development, allowing their citizens to remain in the country, instead of being forced to migrate out of sheer desperation from the impoverished regions in the country .


Source: https://cdn.landthink.com/

The World Food Programme has also spoken up and believes that the tree-planting would be “critical for Ethiopia which had lost billions of trees and forest resources over the years.”

Head of Centre for Wood Science and Technology at Edinburgh Napier University, Dan Ridley-Ellis also told the Guardian: “Trees not only help mitigate climate change by absorbing the carbon dioxide in the air, but they also have huge benefits in combating desertification and land degradation, particularly in arid countries. They also provide food, shelter, fuel, fodder, medicine, materials and protection of the water supply.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.”

All these tree planting efforts are inspiring other countries and governments to do the same and start sustainable projects for an improvement of climate change. Another project that has been in motion is the Sikh initiative called The Million Tree Project, which aims to plant a million trees all over the world.

According to the Mind Unleashed, planting a billion trees all across the planet could have the possibility of reversing climate change by removing two-thirds of carbon dioxide emissions that are present in the world today.

 

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