Ethiopia ‘Breaks’ World Record For Tree Planting By Planting 350 Million Trees In 12 Hours
Summer is definitely the perfect time to get dirty, especially if it’s for a good cause! While most people dig around in their gardens, watering flowers and checking on their cherry tomatoes, people in Ethiopia dropped their everyday business to team up for a shared goal.
The Green Legacy is an initiative led by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, and aims to restore the country’s forest ecosystems as well as reverse the damage done by deforestation and climate change.
Ethiopian officials claim they planted over 350 million trees in an effort to restore the country’s landscape
Image credits: UKinEthiopia
Image credits: PMEthiopia
The big day was on July 29 when people gathered in 1,000 sites all across the country with a goal to plant 200 million forest tree saplings. The goal in itself was ambitious but by the end of the day, government officials declared that actually over 350 million trees were planted, exceeding the original plan by almost double.
Image credits: PMEthiopia
Image credits: mihretum
Ethiopia’s Minister of Innovation and Technology posted a tweet where he claimed that people who took part in the initiative managed to get an astounding amount of trees planted—353,633,660 saplings in 12 hours. Quite a feat for everyone involved, from humanitarians to students, government officials to environmentalists. Although the record hasn’t been verified, the sheer amount of trees planted would easily beat the current record of 50 million trees planted in one day, which was achieved back in 2016 in Uttar Pradesh, India. The Indian attempt is officially confirmed by Guinness World Records as ‘Most trees planted in 24 hours (team)’.
Image credits: STabit
Image credits: amirabiy
It has been reported that some schools and public offices were shut down for the day to allow as many people to join the effort. The Prime Minister himself led by example as he planted the first sapling.
Image credits: flyethiopian
Image credits: twitter.com
And with this ‘record-breaking’ day, Ethiopia doesn’t plan to slow down. After all, the government aims to plant 4 billion trees this year, and, according to agriculture officials, the country has achieved 2.6 billion so far.
Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: UNEnvironmentAf
Ethiopia lost most of its forests in the last century. One-third of the country was covered by forestation at the beginning of the 20th century, however, by 2000 the coverage dropped down to 4%. The drop correlates with Ethiopia’s increasing population, as the number of people living in the country has quadrupled since 1960, reaching over 100 million. The population increase meant demand for farmland and timber which was one of the causes of the tremendous deforestation and ecosystem changes.
Image credits: Makie_ETH
Image credits: lia_tadesse
Ethiopia isn’t alone in the effort to fight deforestation. China has set out to lead by example with the country’s plan to increase its forest coverage to 23% in the upcoming decade.
Image credits: Makie_ETH
Here’s how people on social media reacted to the story
20Kviews
Share on FacebookWow! Seriously impressive. Hope they will be able to water them so they can establish themselves.
While the rest of the world is trying to burn down the world... Africa is still trying to save it.
I know, it’s amazing what teamwork can do.
Load More Replies...I'm fascinated by the history of Ethiopia, I believe it has a beautiful past that is overlooked by many archeologists and historians. It's terrific that they are stepping up and leading the world in a big vegatabley adventure with trees
This is amazing! It'd be awesome if it became a trend to break this record in other places.
BRAVO, with deforestation being a huge issue, and not about to stop, worldwide would be a fabulous idea as someone said, I strongly believe it has a tremendous impact on climate, we have a strong wind every day, not when I was a kid !!!
But meanwhile: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/02/world/americas/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-galvao.html
"The European Union is Ethiopia's foremost partner in the fight against climate change. On 22 July 2019, the EU and the Ethiopian government signed a €36 million financing agreement to help the country grow greener. https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/news-and-events/ethiopia-breaks-world-tree-planting-record-eus-helping-hands_en
Why can't LA do this? I don't believe the number for a minute. That's everyone in the USA planting a tree - not some small country... still a great idea.
Strange, every charity in existence paints Ethiopia as a barren dessert or wasteland full of starving people in mud huts, with no clothes, roads or other infrastructure; nice to see the country is doing so well these days. Also, more trees- yay!
Amazing initiative !!! I hope they enter into Guinness Book of World Records and India intensifies its efforts to break its previous world record.Such types of collective works only can bring down global warming.The future generations of Ethoopians will be grateful..!
i HOPE THEY PLANTED FRUIT TREES SO THE PEOPLE COULD HAVE SOMETHING TO EAT.
Over 8000 trees a second! Bs. I read elsewhere that the number was 350,000 so...... Which do I believe? Lol
With Ethiopia’s population, if everyone in the country planted 3-4 trees, they could’ve easily planted 350,000,000 trees in fifteen minutes.
Load More Replies...I’m worried the trees will suck up all the sun rays the the sun will get cooler though
The math is ALL WRONG --- no way in hell they planted 350 MILLION trees LOL
Wow! Seriously impressive. Hope they will be able to water them so they can establish themselves.
While the rest of the world is trying to burn down the world... Africa is still trying to save it.
I know, it’s amazing what teamwork can do.
Load More Replies...I'm fascinated by the history of Ethiopia, I believe it has a beautiful past that is overlooked by many archeologists and historians. It's terrific that they are stepping up and leading the world in a big vegatabley adventure with trees
This is amazing! It'd be awesome if it became a trend to break this record in other places.
BRAVO, with deforestation being a huge issue, and not about to stop, worldwide would be a fabulous idea as someone said, I strongly believe it has a tremendous impact on climate, we have a strong wind every day, not when I was a kid !!!
But meanwhile: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/02/world/americas/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-galvao.html
"The European Union is Ethiopia's foremost partner in the fight against climate change. On 22 July 2019, the EU and the Ethiopian government signed a €36 million financing agreement to help the country grow greener. https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/news-and-events/ethiopia-breaks-world-tree-planting-record-eus-helping-hands_en
Why can't LA do this? I don't believe the number for a minute. That's everyone in the USA planting a tree - not some small country... still a great idea.
Strange, every charity in existence paints Ethiopia as a barren dessert or wasteland full of starving people in mud huts, with no clothes, roads or other infrastructure; nice to see the country is doing so well these days. Also, more trees- yay!
Amazing initiative !!! I hope they enter into Guinness Book of World Records and India intensifies its efforts to break its previous world record.Such types of collective works only can bring down global warming.The future generations of Ethoopians will be grateful..!
i HOPE THEY PLANTED FRUIT TREES SO THE PEOPLE COULD HAVE SOMETHING TO EAT.
Over 8000 trees a second! Bs. I read elsewhere that the number was 350,000 so...... Which do I believe? Lol
With Ethiopia’s population, if everyone in the country planted 3-4 trees, they could’ve easily planted 350,000,000 trees in fifteen minutes.
Load More Replies...I’m worried the trees will suck up all the sun rays the the sun will get cooler though
The math is ALL WRONG --- no way in hell they planted 350 MILLION trees LOL
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