President of Somali region of Ethiopia, Mustafe Agjar, kick-starts tree-planting initiative in the region

Jigjiga, July 31 (Somaliland.com):– As part of the national campaign against deforestation and battling climate change in Ethiopia, the president of the Somali region of Ethiopia, Mustafe Omar Agjar, kick-started the project in his region on Monday, 29 July 2019, with more than a million and half saplings allocated to the region on the first day.

Mustafe Omar Agjar pointed out that the initiative is part of a national campaign to plant two hundred million trees across the country in a single day. He added that the initiative also aims also at instilling fellowship between the people of Ethiopia and reinforce integration. He warned the public to desist from cutting down these trees and urged them to plant trees in their front yard.

The planting is part of a national “Green Legacy” initiative to grow 4 billion trees in the country this summer by encouraging every citizen to plant at least 40 saplings.

The two hundred million trees goal was surpassed on Monday according to government officials with more than three hundred and fifty million trees been planted in twelve hours. This achievement breaks the World Record for the number of trees planted in a single day which was formerly held by India, which used 800,000 volunteers to plant more than 50 million trees in 2016.

The project became a necessity in the country in the face of declining forest coverage from 35% of the total landmass in early 20^th century to 4% in the current century, according to a UN report.