Ethiopia broke world record by planting 350 million trees in 12 hours

Everyone knows that summer is a great time for gardening work, especially if these works help save our planet! And while we dig here in our gardens and ride "for potatoes", the people of Ethiopia left their routine activities to unite for the highest noble purpose.

Abiem Ahmed, the head of Ethiopia’s government, became the founder of the Green Heritage flash mob, designed to revive a rich flora and eliminate the disastrous effects of climate change.

A few days ago in Ethiopia was a truly significant day. Residents of the country gathered at more than 1000 sites to plant two hundred million seedlings. But the enthusiasm of the volunteers was so great that by the end of the day, authorities reported 350 million planted plants.

One of Ethiopian ministers wrote on his Twitter account that those who participated in this action were able to give the country an incredible amount of new trees - 353,633,660 seedlings in twelve hours. This is a great event for everyone, from students to officials and environmentalists.

So that as many people as possible can join the initiative, some schools and government institutions stopped their work on this day. And the first seedling was planted by the Prime Minister himself.

But Ethiopia does not plan to stop on this record either. By the end of the year, the government intends to increase the number of trees in the country by a total of 4 billion.

Ethiopia has lost most of its green space over the past century. At the dawn of the 1900s, one third of the state was covered with forests, but twenty years ago this figure already amounted to 4% of the territory. Such a colossal decrease is associated with an increase in the country's population: since 1960, the number of people living in Ethiopia has increased 4 times. This, in turn, meant an increased need for a tree.