DSW’s Ethiopian Team took part in the Green Legacy Initiative (GLI), which started five years ago, for the fifth year in a row. This year’s nationwide campaign to plant trees took place on 19 July 2023. At its fifth round, the GLI is expected to plant 6.3 billion tree seedlings (according to Ministry of Agriculture cited by Fana Broadcasting, a state-run media) across the country. Fifteen DSW staff members, who sowed an average of 20 seedlings each, teamed up with other civil society organizations (CSOs) to plant young trees before spring starts after the long rainy season ceases in a few months.
The coalition of the Authority for Civil Society Organizations (ACSO), the Office of the National Coordination for the Construction of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the Civil Society Council and Population-Health-Environment (PHE), an umbrella organisation, have successfully mobilised volunteers from civil society organisations and other stakeholders across various public and private sectors to plant trees on the terrains of a rural farming community (Gorfu) about two-and-half-hours north of the capital.
The GLI left no civil society organisation unaccounted for throughout its five consecutive years of campaigns to reinforce forest development in Ethiopia and according to sources close to the government, more than half of the nationwide efforts to plant trees were invested in expanding the integrated agriculture and horticultural practices. This year’s event not only saw the participation of resident diplomats and their family members but also drew youth at workplaces and school pupils to take part in planting the tree-seedlings.
One of the youngest participants who spoke to our team at the event said, “my health depends on the health of the environment in which both I and the young trees I planted created symbiotic habitation.”
Photographs: private
