Overview

• Today’s campaign marks the seventh annual one-day effort of the Green Legacy initiative, which aims to plant 50 billion trees by 2026 with a 700 million–seedling target for 2025.
• State minister Tesfahun Gobezay reported that 14.9 million participants had planted 355 million seedlings by 6 a.m., though those figures cannot be independently verified.
• Thousands of public servants were dispatched nationwide, many government offices closed for the effort, and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed personally joined volunteers in Jimma.
• Forest ecologist Kitessa Hundera estimated the target would require about 35 million people planting 20 seedlings each and warned of mixed exotic and indigenous species without data on seedling survival.
• Authorities say 40 billion seedlings have been planted since the program’s 2019 launch and maintain a 2025 goal of 7.5 billion trees as part of Ethiopia’s broader restoration objectives.