ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopians from all walks of life on Friday took part in a nationwide tree planting campaign, aiming to set a new milestone of planting 600 million saplings in a single day.

The nationwide planting campaign, which is being held under the theme "A Nation that Plants, a Generation that Perseveres," is part of the East African country's annual plan of planting a staggering number of 6.5 billion trees during the ongoing rainy season.

If successful, the daily campaign will mark a new record on the backdrop of a similar event on July 17 last year, when Ethiopians planted more than 566 million trees on a single day across the country, according to official figures.

Mahlet Solomon, a teacher in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, is one of the active participants in the tree-planting initiative over the years. Solomon said she successfully planted 10 saplings Friday morning in a protected area on the outskirts of Addis Ababa alongside fellow school community members.

"Planting trees is a noble endeavor that helps protect our environment and restore our lost forests. This should be a priority for climate adaptation efforts not only in our country but also worldwide," Solomon stated to Xinhua shortly after her planting activity.

Solomon also emphasized the importance of balancing such initiatives with an equal focus on safeguarding the country's existing forest areas while ensuring the survival of the newly planted saplings.

According to the latest data from the Ethiopian Government Communications Service, the campaign, which started around 6 a.m., local time, has seen the planting of more than 402 million saplings as of 2 p.m., local time. With the participation of some 19 million Ethiopians, the campaign has so far covered about 161,000 hectares of land with tree saplings.

As Ethiopia braces itself to combat desertification and address the adverse effects of climate change, a government-led massive tree planting initiative, dubbed the Green Legacy campaign, has gained momentum across Africa's second-populous nation.

As the tree planting initiative gets traction among Ethiopians from all walks of life, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said with the conclusion of Friday's nationwide tree planting campaign, the country will have planted around 40 billion seedlings since the launch of the Green Legacy initiative in 2019.

The Green Legacy initiative, which is part of the Ethiopian government's ambition to recover the country's depleted forest resources, was launched some six years ago with an overarching goal of propelling the country's aspiration of building a green, lower-middle-income economy in the near future.

According to the prime minister, of the seedlings planted in the past year, 50 percent have been focused on food security, soil conservation, and combating land degradation. He also called on strengthening the national tree-planting movement to support water conservation efforts.

Experts often attribute the increasing adverse effects of climate change in Ethiopia to the escalating rate of deforestation. Over the past few decades, Africa's second most populous nation has witnessed a significant loss of its once-abundant forest coverage.

According to the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority (EEPA), while Ethiopia only accounts for about 0.04 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the country is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, mainly due to its high dependence on rain-fed agriculture and natural resources, as well as its relatively limited adaptive capacity.

Speaking to Xinhua recently, officials at the EEPA said the East African country is facing the brunt of climate change and needs to urgently build climate resilience capability. As the adverse effects of climate change persist, heavy rains, flooding, and soil erosion are putting both urban and rural infrastructure at risk, particularly for the vulnerable segment of the Ethiopian population.

The Ethiopian government also envisaged the massive tree-planting initiative to support the country's efforts in ensuring food security, mainly through planting edible plant varieties.

Data from the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture also show that some 60 percent of the planned 6.5 billion seedlings to be planted this rainy season will be multipurpose fruit tree seedlings, which will have the dual importance of augmenting the country's food security and commercial purposes.

As part of this year's edition of the tree planting campaign, the ministry recently disclosed that the planting of the 6.5 billion seedlings will take place mainly from June to September. It said the seedlings were being cultivated across 132,144 nursery sites throughout the country. Enditem

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