Ethiopia smashed through records by planting more than an astounding 350 million seedlings in a single day. The initial goal was to plant 200 million. It turns out that the final amount ended up at over 353 million. What’s more, they didn’t even take the full 24 hours to accomplish this monstrous feat. It was said to have completed in 12 hours. The big-picture plan is to reach 4 billion seedlings. Up until Ethiopia embarked on this feat, India held the record at over 50 million seedlings planted by 800,000 people. When the campaign initially kicked off, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia spoke widely of the efforts to plant so many seedlings. To further show his commitment to the effort, he planted seeds alongside the guests that visited him in office. (1)
PM Abiy calls upon everyone in #Ethiopia to go out and #PlantYourPrint. #PMOEthiopia pic.twitter.com/leQdUBv849
— Office of the Prime Minister – Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) July 29, 2019
Ethiopia Experienced Major Droughts
Droughts have wreaked havoc throughout Ethiopia over the past few years. In 2017 alone, over 2 million animals died. Ethiopia has been subject to deforestation, and only 4% of the land is currently forested. It is a considerable setback in comparison to 30% that was seen at the end of the 19th century. (1) The droughts caused massive water shortages, failed crops, and many livestock losses. Women are said to walk hours to find clean water to drink for households. (2) In 2017, 5.6 million people required food assistance, 2.7 million children and mothers required supplementary feeding, and 9.2 million needed extra support in accessing safe drinking water. Additionally, 300,000 children were at risk of malnutrition. (3)
Everyone Got Involved In The Initiative
The sheer number of volunteers, communities, and corporations involved made the drastic amount of seedlings planted all possible. Billene Seyoum, press secretary for the Prime Minister of Ethiopia stated, “I think we demonstrated the capacity for people to come together collectively and deliver on a shared vision”. (4) Seyoum also stated that the seedlings vary from region to region and that many nurseries are working to produce more saplings. Tim Christophersen, chair of the Global Partnership Forest and Landscape Restoration, stated “The most important factor is grazing pressure. If you plant a tree and a day later the goats come along they will absolutely eat the tree first before they eat the dry grass next to it,” he said. “We don’t speak so much about planting trees but about growing trees.” (4)
What Does Planting Trees Do?
To combat the constant upheaval caused by climate change, planting more trees is one of the best and most effective approaches. If 500 billion trees are planted, it could potentially remove as much as 25% of the carbon from the atmosphere. Though the vast number of trees does soak up the carbon, it could take anywhere from 50 to 100 years for it to occur on that large of a scale. (5) Professor Martin Lukac of the University of Reading stated, “Planting trees to soak up two-thirds of the entire anthropogenic carbon burden to date sounds too good to be true. Probably because it is”. (6) Ultimately, planting seedlings that will eventually turn into beautiful trees can only contribute in a positive light to Ethiopia. It is a long-term investment into the health of the environment and will pay dividends into the future.
