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Ethiopians plant 350 million trees on a single day to set new ‘world record’


Ethiopia planted 350 million trees in a single day on Monday ‘smashing’ the previous world record held by India of 50 million trees in a day.

Ethiopia’s Minister of Innovation and Technology, Dr Getahun Mekuria, tweeted estimates of the number of trees planted throughout the day.

By early evening on Monday, he put the number at 353 million.


The initiative ‘green legacy’ is part of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali plan to plant 4 billion trees by October 2019 to help restore the country’s landscape.

The Prime Minister has encouraged everyone in a country of 105 million people to plant atleast 40 trees by October.

Public offices have reportedly been shut down in order for civil servants to take part in the exercise.

According Farm Africa, an organisation involved in Ethiopian forest management, less than 4 per cent of the country’s land is now forested, a sharp decline from around 30 per cent at the end of the 19th century.

It is not yet clear if the Guinness World Record is monitoring Ethiopia’s mass tree planting scheme but the Prime Minister’s office said specially developed software is helping with the count.