More than 902,000 hectares of land is readied for planting tree seedlings this Ethiopian rainy season, according to Ethiopian Forestry Development (EFD).

Ethiopia has managed to plant 25 billion seedlings in the past 4 years through the Green Legacy Initiative.

EFD Deputy Director General Motuma Tolera told ENA that the comprehensive activity carried out through the initiative is a successful project that has mobilized massive public participation like the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

He noted that planting trees is not a matter of choice but survival for Ethiopians because unless millions of seedlings are not planted every year, we will be exposed to serious dangers caused by climate change.

“The Green Legacy Initiative is not a matter of choice as most of our mountain areas are being severely degraded,” the deputy director general said, adding that recent studies show that millions of hectares of land are also going to deteriorate unless they are quickly covered with trees. There is a lot of soil erosion.”

According to him, over 7 billion seedlings are prepared so far to plant more than 6.5 billion tree seedlings. For this reason, the tree seedlings are readied for planting after research was conducted to identify what kind of saplings to plant, in what kind of environment, and what kind of soil.

Subsequently, over 902,000 hectares of land is prepared for planting seedlings.

Motuma added that the community’s participation has been improving from time to time in seed selection, planting, and caring for the trees.

More than 250 million saplings were planted in Oromia, Sidama, South, SouthWest Ethiopia regions, and Dre Dawa City Administration during this belg season.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency