<
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/sep/17/i-see-them-like-my-own-children-reforesting-ethiopia-with-50bn-trees-one-step-at-a-time>
"When Halima Kedir first began planting trees, she was met with scepticism and
even mockery. “My neighbours discouraged me,” she recalls, sitting on a wooden
chair in her garden, which is lush with the trees and fruits she has planted –
banana, olive and grevillea among them.
“They thought I was striving for nothing, but with time, many are realising
that trees can be part of the solution to our problems as a way to fight
climate change and food insecurity,” she says.
Kedir, 35, who lives in the Berbere district of Ethiopia’s Oromia region,
became an accidental environmentalist after planting thousands of trees – she
has lost count of how many – inspiring others to follow suit.
In a nation with a history of large-scale deforestation, Kedir’s work has not
been easy. It has required moral courage and practical endurance. As her trees
took root and her surroundings became greener, the people who doubted began to
respect what she was doing, she says. “Now, everything has changed. Those who
tried to dissuade me are envious of my effort and commitment.”
For Kedir, trees are more than just plants, they are living companions and part
of a solution to some of the challenges her community faces in one of the
world’s most climate-vulnerable nations.
From the turn of the century to 2025, Ethiopia lost 560,000 hectares (2,160 sq
miles) of its tree cover, due to the expansion of agriculture, commercial
logging and the use of charcoal as fuel. This has resulted in devastating
impacts on biodiversity, soil quality and water resources as well as
increasing the risk of climate-related disasters.
But thanks to a number of initiatives introduced by the Ethiopian government,
including a massive tree-planting scheme known as the Green Legacy Initiative
(GLI) in 2019, the rate of deforestation has slowed. Between 2013 and 2023, the
annual deforestation rate fell from 92,000 hectares to 27,703 hectares.
Meanwhile, forest cover has increased from 15.5% to 23.6% during the same
period.
Through the GLI, the government claims to have planted 48bn trees in seven
years, including a reported record-breaking 353m seedlings in one day. Its goal
is to plant 50bn trees by 2030."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
