Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed officially closed the tree planting season by planting a final set of seedlings with members of the 4-billion trees steering and technical committees.

He called upon all Ethiopians to now embark on the caretaking process of planted seedlings to see their efforts bloom.

In a record-breaking day early this month at the Gulele Botanical Garden in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia launched a historic tree planting campaign. Over 350 million trees were planted in an ambitious move to counter the effects of deforestation and climate change.

The event was part of the prime minister’s Green Legacy Initiative and sought to plant 200 million trees in a single day in 1,000 sites across the country.

Ethiopia’s Minister of Innovation and Technology, Getahun Mekuria, said more than 350 million trees were planted in 12 hours, breaking a world record held by India since 2016.

The tree planting event was attended by a representative of the UN Environment Programme’s Liaison Office to Africa Union Commission, UN Economic Commission for Africa and representative to Ethiopia, and whose support for this ambitious action was crucial, as well as other United Nations Agencies and various international organizations.

Source: Office of Ethiopian Prime Minister