BY DARGIE KAHSAY
Ethiopia remains at the front in combating climate change and desertification with its mitigation and adaptation measures. In 2019, it launched greenery revolution to plant four five billion trees within a year and 20 billion trees within four years which make the country a global leader in massive seedling transplantation. With this national initiative of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD), Ethiopia has secured over 18 billion seedlings in the past three consecutive years.
At the outset the ambitious plan of the country in 2019, to plant 20 billion seedlings within four years, seemed unachievable and ideal. But, the initiative was true imitative and Ethiopia successfully planted over five billion seedlings every year and for the fourth year greenery initiative, Ethiopia set a target of planting six billion trees this rainy season which would increase the country’s four years planted seedlings to 24 billion, which exceeds four billion from its four year’s target plan. With this objective, Ethiopia launched its fourth year plantation campaign yesterday at Gulele Botanical Garden with the presence of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
“The Green Legacy Initiative we launched in June of 2019 is rooted in a vision of building green and climate resilient Ethiopia. We set a target of planting 20 billion seedlings within a period of four years. By the third year we had succeeded in planting close to 18 billion seedlings by mobilizing more than 20 million citizens throughout the nation,” Abiy underlined.
The Green Legacy initiative was launched with the goal of combating climate change, restoring degraded landscapes and forests and promoting a green culture and ecotourism across the country. “As it pertains to tackling deforestation, Green Legacy as a moment has been instrumental in creating public awareness, thereby leading to significant decline in the rate of deforestation over the past couple of years,” Prime Minister Abiy stated.
Yesterday, Ethiopia has launched the fourth year Green Legacy initiative where it attended by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, former Prime Minister of Ethiopia Hailemariam Desalegn, higher federal and state officials, prominent public figures and by heads of regional and international organizations. Ethiopia’s fourth year Green Legacy initiative target is planting six billion seedlings and Prime Minister Abiy stated that over 7.2 billion seedlings are already ready for the plantation across the country.
“Ethiopia plans to plant six billion seedlings and to achieve this, 7.2 billion Seedlings have been prepared of which 52 percent account for agro-forestry trees. Forestry trees on the other hand account for 47 percent of seedlings prepared and the remaining are ornamental trees,” Abiy noted. Through the Green Legacy initiative, this generation is laying a foundation for multidimensional prosperity by leaving climate smart generation legacy, he added.
The country’s greenery campaign in addition to leaving climate smart legacy, combating deforestation and land degradation by recovering affected areas, it is creating huge job opportunity and also becoming source of livelihood income for many households. The proliferation of nursery stations throughout the country has created over 183 thousand permanent and temporary job opportunities across the country. “In addition,” Abiy underlined “an annually improving survival rate of around 80 percent is contributing to the creation of new forests.”
During the launching ceremony of the fourth year Green Legacy initiative at Entoto Botanical Garden organized with a theme “Planting our finger print for future generations”, PM Abiy stated that the effectiveness of Ethiopia’s Green Legacy initiative is an indicator that Ethiopian’s have the capacity to fulfill their plan timely and effectively. During the Green Legacy plantation, the focus is not only trees for forest coverage purpose but also it includes planting seedlings for food security, income generation and beautification, according to the Premier.
“Ethiopia’s Green Legacy initiative is not a luxury, it is critical action to reconcile with nature” Abiy stated during the launching ceremony. For him, the country’s Green Legacy initiative is part of the country’s journey to prosperity project as it is helpful to increase the country’s productivity mainly in the agriculture sector and to go parallel with nature in its development journey.
Tens of millions attended the past three years Green Legacy campaigns across the country even during the year that COVID-19 was in a critical case. This year, as the final year of the first round fourth year Green Legacy initiative, people across the country are expected to join hands to plant beyond the target plan. PM Abiy calls on all Ethiopians to demonstrate their ability to mobilize for a generational cause by participating in the Green Legacy initiative by leaving their prints.
“The green finger prints we leave today will survive us,” the Premier noted adding that “Green Legacy initiative is just a caring for the land that sustains.” On the other hand, PM Abiy calls to all Africans to join Ethiopia in making green legacy a continent-wide phenomenon to cover Africa in green.
The Ethiopian Herald June 22/2022
