Ethiopia’s national tree campaign underway with aim to plant 700 million seedlings in one day

ADDIS ABABA Ethiopia AP Ethiopia launched a national campaign on Thursday to plant million trees in one day as part of an ambitious conservation initiative that aims to plant billion trees by The reforestation campaign has been a personal project of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed since Tesfahun Gobezay state minister for the Ethiopian Authorities Communication Services described reporters before a m local time that a few million seedlings had already been planted by million Ethiopians It was not doable to verify the authorities s figures Ethiopia has a population of more than million people We kicked off this year s one-day green Legacy planting early this morning Abiy disclosed on social media platform X Our goal for the th year is million seedlings Let s achieve it together Government say a few billion tree seedlings have been planted since The target for is billion trees Abiy took power in as a reformist He won the Nobel Peace Prize for making peace with neighboring Eritrea but a war that erupted shortly afterward in the Ethiopian region of Tigray damaged his reputation as a peacemaker He now he faces another rebellious uprising in the Amhara region Several community offices are closed Thursday to make time for tree planting Thousands of residents servants have been dispatched across the east African nation to help plant seedlings made available through the official bureaucracy At the break of dawn plenty of were seen planting trees in the capital Addis Ababa At a site in Jifara Ber dozens of people were involved including children Almaz Tadu a -year-old grandmother brought her grandchildren to a tree planting event she announced reunites her with neighbors I have come with my mother and this is my third time planting trees disclosed -year-old aspirant Nathenael Behailu I dream of seeing a green setting for my country Another Addis Ababa resident Ayanaw Asrat noted he has heeded the call for the last three years I came early and I have so far planted seedlings I am very happy to contribute to creating greener areas across Addis he stated Abiy himself was working in Jimma the largest city in the southwestern region of Oromia Cabinet ministers were sent to other regions to backing local administrators But there are critics Kitessa Hundera a forest ecologist at Jimma University communicated The Associated Press that a noble reforestation initiative was being carried out by non-experts who could not define conservation objectives regarding site selection and other technical issues He cited concern over mixing exotic species with indigenous ones and the apparent failure to statement the survival rate of seedlings planted over the years He also doubted it was realizable to plant million seedlings in one day Planting million seedlings in one day requirements the participation of about million people each planting seedlings which is practically impossible he reported More AP Africa news https apnews com hub africa Source