In Kenya, people planted trees on a large scale on a specially created holiday. In the fight against climate change, 100 million shares should be staked within one day.
President William Ruto led the ambitious “National Tree Planting Day” with a planting drive in the Kiu wetland, about 200 kilometers north of the capital Nairobi. His cabinet ministers led similar actions in various provinces across the country. In order to achieve the goal within one day, almost every one of the East African country’s approximately 54 million inhabitants would have to plant two trees.
The campaign is part of the Kenyan government’s plan announced last December to plant around 15 billion trees by 2032. The government provides the seedlings to citizens free of charge.
Neighboring Ethiopia had already started a similar program in 2019. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government said at the time that it had planted 350 million trees in one day with the help of the population. Abiy also carried out similar planting campaigns in subsequent years. However, there have always been doubts about the credibility of the government’s reported numbers of trees planted. Conservationists also point out that it’s not just about planting lots of trees, but also about keeping the saplings alive.
