Ethiopia has set a new world record by planting up to 350 million trees in a single day according to reports.
Located in the “Horn of Africa”, Ethiopia shares border with Eriteria, Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia where most of them suffer from severe hunger, wars seasonal drought among others.
But Ethiopia is taking the bold initiative of changing their country’s future. On Monday, Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed joined other Ethiopians in a nationwide tree planting exercise that is being called the biggest exercise in the world overtaking India who set a record for planting 66 million in 24 hours.
Launched in May, under its green legacy”initiative, Africa’s Coffee Capital is trying to tackle deforestation the best way it knows how; planting of trees. It hopes to have planted 4 billions trees in the subsequent months.
The BBC said some government offices and schools were given a day off to join in the green campaign.
“After 12 hours, Ethiopia’s Minister of Innovation and Technology Getahun Mekuria tweeted that they had planted more than 353,000,000 tree seedlings in 12 hours.” it added
Ethiopia’s government said it had used a software in counting the number of trees planted during the first phase of the initiative and it is unclear if the Guinness World Records will consider this feat.