About 350m trees have been planted in a single day in Ethiopia, according to a government minister.
The planting is part of a national “green legacy” initiative to grow 4bn trees in the country this summer by encouraging every citizen to plant at least 40 seedlings. Public offices have reportedly been shut down in order for civil servants to take part.
The project aims to tackle the effects of deforestation and climate change in the drought-prone country. According to the UN, Ethiopia’s forest coverage was just 4% in the 2000s, down from 35% a century earlier.
Tree planting 'has mind-blowing potential' to tackle climate crisis Read more
Ethiopia’s minister of innovation and technology, Dr Getahun Mekuria, tweeted estimates of the number of trees planted throughout the day. By early evening on Monday, he put the number at 353m.
The previous world record for the most trees planted in one day stood at 50m, held by India since 2016.
Dr Dan Ridley-Ellis, the head of the centre for wood science and technology at Edinburgh Napier University, said: “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.”
rwisoursavior on July 29th, 2019 at 20:21 UTC »
My wife planted 3 trees and her sister planted 1 in Ethiopia today. I asked her and it's basically an all you can plant situation.
She stated no one she saw planted 40 and the more rural areas aren't planting trees because transporting millions of seedlings to rural areas is quite the logistics problem.
Great initiative, I'm skeptical of 350 million in one day.
Daafda on July 29th, 2019 at 20:02 UTC »
We're talking about a government that shut down the internet for an extended period last month after surviving a "coup" attempt that probably wasn't a real coup attempt. The Chief of the Army and a regional Attorney General were killed. Mass detentions are ongoing, and the leader of the opposition NAMA party and dozens of party members were arrested on Friday.
On that same day, news reports emerge that Ethiopia is going to plant 200 million trees in one day.
Lo and behold, only a few days later, they nearly doubled that. Amazing!
Maybe - just maybe - 350 million tress planted in Ethiopia in a day is just bullshit propaganda to distract from what would appear to be a collapse in Ethiopian democracy.
Edit - They actually shut down the internet a couple of days before the supposed coup attempt was thwarted.
purplemana on July 29th, 2019 at 19:51 UTC »
Is there a number of trees for the planet that would put us ahead of climate change?