Ellen Chasokela Herald Reporter
The Ethiopian community in Zimbabwe yesterday planted 12 trees at their country’s embassy in Harare, in a symbolic gesture meant to help restore the country’s landscape which is under threat from deforestation and in line with Prime Minister Mr Abiy Ahmed’s initiative to plant 4 billion trees between May and October.

Ethiopians yesterday planted more than 200 million trees in their country. The country is in the midst of a tree planting campaign in which it aims to plant four billion trees between May and October.

In an interview on the sidelines of the tree planting campaign in Harare yesterday at their offices, Ethiopian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Addisu Gebreigzabhier commended Zimbabwe for managing to keep the country green.

“We Africans are good in planning trees and Zimbabwe is an example. Wherever you go to the provinces in Zimbabwe, the land is covered with forest, so planting trees and, of course, managing the forest is a big task.

“What we have learnt from Zimbabwe is managing the forest. Every year what we need to plan is to plant trees because we do not need to forget that because trees are being cut daily, so there is need to replant.

“As it is known all over the world dealing with climate change and deforestation is a serious topic and it has been discussed by the leaders of African countries at the African Union leaders’ summit and, of course, globally,” he said.

Ambassador Gebreigzabhier said for the last five decades Ethiopia has lost a lot of trees, mostly indigenous species, causing negative climate effects.

“We want to reforest and we want to have trees all over the country and this is the main reason why we are doing this. The effects of climate change in Ethiopia manifest in  drought and we want, of course, to really get rid of this negative effects to the farmers and the economy of the country,’’ he said.

Chairperson of the Ethiopian community in Zimbabwe Mr Endris Mohammed Seid said the environment in Zimbabwe was good.

“The planting of trees is an initiative by our Prime Minister, so today we are planting 200 million seedlings in Ethiopia and this is just a part of it,” he said.

“We are really proud of the initiative because now the environment where we are living in is facing a lot of deforestation effects, so we need to replant and fight the effects.

“It’s a good initiative and exemplary one which should be taken up by other African countries. Zimbabwe is a good example because we have a lot of trees in here and it’s very green. We are happy to be part of this and contributing to the green environment in Zimbabwe, it will help a lot.”