Prime minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration has been mobilizing for months for what it called “Green Legacy” project which aimed at planting over 200 million trees in a single day.
Government affiliated media, Fana Broadcasting Corporation (FBC), cited the coordinating committee of the project to report that 353,633,660, trees have been planted across the country.
Religious leaders, workers, business people, actors, members of the Ethiopian Defense force, senior government officials, students, among others, have participated in the campaign.
From opposition groups, it is reported that Dr. Berhanu Nega, Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice Party, planted tree in Yeka plateau in the capital Addis Ababa.
Prime minister Abiy Ahmed seized his working visit opportunity in Wolaita, in Southern Ethiopia, to plant a tree during today’s tree-planting campaigns.
Patriarch of Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Mathias, kicked off the tree planting campaign in Jijiga Ethiopian Somali region along with the regional president Mustafa Mohammed Omar.
President Sahlework Zewde took part in a tree-planting campaign in Gonder, where she was in a working visit.
As well, members of the diplomatic communities in the capital took part in the campaign to plant over 200 million trees and have planted in
Over the last decades, Ethiopia lost much of forest coverage across the country due to deforestation. Currently, the forest coverage is said to be below 3 percent.
Organizers of the green legacy campaign and Abiy Ahmed’s administration pride itself by claiming world record with the 200 million trees in a day campaign.
According to Guinness World Records, the record for individuals was registered in 2001 in Canada. Ken Chaplain planted 15,170 trees in one day in Saskatchewan.
In terms of tree planting by volunteers, the highest number of trees planted is India in 2016, as per The National Geographic report. About 50 million trees were planted on June 11, 2016.
Source:Borkena