Green Legacy, for a greener and cleaner Ethiopia, is a national go-green campaign to raise the public’s awareness about Ethiopia’s frightening environmental degradation and educate society on the importance of adopting green behavior.

“the public response to last yyear’sGreen Legacy planting season was overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. Last year we aimed for 4 billion, and we executed accordingly. This year our target is set to plant 5 billion seedlings. Dreaming big and aiming high is crucial. But continuity is what breeds excellence. It s my wish everyone is actively engaged with enthusiasm as we cultivate a green culture.” H.E. P” ime Minister Abiy Ahmed

The Campaign is part of the Green Legacy Initiative, promoted by the Ethiopian Prime Minister to reach national green environmental goals and face the effects of deforestation and climate change in the country. The ambitious goal of the Initiative for 2019 is to plant a total of four billion indigenous trees by the end of the rainy season in October.

In this framework, the    Green.

A legacy campaign was launched to help achieve this goal, proposing that the whole country participates by planting 200 million tree seedlings in 1000 sites across Ethiopia in one-day on Monday, July 29, 2019. This goal has been largely overcome, reaching the result of 353,633,660 tree seedlings planted and establishing a new world record.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Innovation, and Technology, local governments, officials and operators of public institutions, schools, private companies, NGOs, and associations of different sectors have joined the Campaign. But it is the country’s population that has made it possible to achieve a result of such a significant impact.

The Ministry of Agriculture informed that 2.6 billion new trees have already been planted, more than half of the target established by the Green Legacy Initiative. Most of the seedlings distributed to the participants and planted are from indigenous tree species; Nationwide monitoring will ensure that the planted trees are grown.

The Initiative’s promoters and the national and international press have emphasized the results of this Campaign and the new record set by Ethiopia. India’s last record-breaking environmental Campaign was realized in 2017 when around 1.5 million volunteers planted more than 66 million trees in 12 hours.

Reforestation initiatives are not new in a country like Ethiopia, which has actively participated in the Billion Tree Campaign, a great competition for a greener world promoted by the United Nations. Ethiopia ranks third in planting trees in the framework of this Campaign launched in 2006 by the  United Nations Environment Program and inspired by the Nobel  Peace  Prize. Wangari  Maathai,  founder  of  the Green.

Belt Movement in Kenia. According to Wikipedia, as of August 2018, the Campaign registered over 15.2 billion planted trees across 193 countries. The Top 10 countries are China, India, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Mexico, France, Turkey, Peru, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and the United States.

The Brochure of the Trillion Tree Campaign highlights its impact on communities…Some of the seedlings we plant will restore springs long dry, prevent soil erosion and create a fertilizer to boost harvests. Others will break the Sahara winds, halting the spread of desert dunes. Countless more will provide food for people in rural areas and cities. Some will supply forage for livestock and for insects that pollinate crops. Many will produce wood and natural oils for building and fuel. Yet others will be used to create medicines to heal the human body and essential oils to ease the soul. All will draw carbon dioxide from the air, leaving us a little less vulnerable to the threats posed by climate change.

In 2017, Ethiopia joined more than 20 other African nations in pledging to restore 100 million hectares of land as part of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative promoted by the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD.

The U.N. Environment Program has given visibility to the results achieved in Ethiopia through the Green Legacy Campaign, hoping that other countries will be inspired to carry out similar reforestation initiatives, contributing to the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration objectives 2021-2030.

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