{"id":283866,"date":"2019-08-10T19:07:56","date_gmt":"2019-08-10T23:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiLmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy93b3JsZC1hZnJpY2EtNDkyNjY5ODPSATJodHRwczovL3d3dy5iYmMuY29tL25ld3MvYW1wL3dvcmxkLWFmcmljYS00OTI2Njk4Mw?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-10-18T11:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T15:29:22","slug":"bbc-reality-check-ethiopia-350-million-trees-one-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/283866","title":{"rendered":"BBC Reality Check found Ethiopia’s claim of 350 million trees planted in a day possible but unverified"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia's claim that it planted more than 350 million tree seedlings in 12 hours on July 29, 2019, was possible but had not been independently confirmed, BBC Reality Check concluded.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/figure>\n

A Moringa stenopetala tree nursery in Ethiopia's Gurage Zone, photographed on June 7, 2012. (Trees for the Future \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0) [file photo]<\/em><\/p>\n

Innovation and Technology Minister Getahun Mekuria said the country had beaten its initial target of 200 million seedlings. The government launched the campaign earlier that year to tackle deforestation and climate change and aimed to plant four billion trees by October, the BBC reported.<\/p>\n

The United Nations says Ethiopia's forest cover fell from 35 percent of its land area in the early 20th century to a little above 4 percent by the 2000s, according to the BBC.<\/p>\n

Tefera Mengistu, coordinator of the National Forest Sector Development Program, said more than 23 million people took part. The government said seedlings, mostly indigenous species along with fruit trees such as avocado, were handed out three days before the event and that officials were assigned to count them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not impossible, but it would take a very well-organised effort,\u201d Tim Christophersen, who coordinates work on forests and climate change at the United Nations, told AFP. He said one volunteer could realistically plant about 100 trees a day and that 350 million trees would need about 864,000 acres of land. No tally of how many trees each person planted was available, the BBC said.<\/p>\n

The head of one government-linked organization told the BBC it had been ordered to plant 10,000 trees but had to pay for them from its own budget, so it planted 5,000 and reported the full amount. The BBC also found discrepancies between figures for some areas given by the minister and those posted on the prime minister's website. The prime minister's office had not responded to a request for clarification.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally don't believe that we planted this much\u2026 It might be impossible to plant this many trees within a day,\u201d a spokesperson for the opposition Ezema party said. Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo, director of UN Environment's Africa office, praised the campaign and said other African nations \u201cshould move with speed and challenge the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guinness World Records said it had not received an application from Ethiopia. A record claim would require evidence of the planting, the participants, the locations and timings, plus two independent witnesses. The record at the time belonged to India, where more than 800,000 people planted 50 million trees in Uttar Pradesh state in 2016, the BBC reported.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> BBC News: \u201cDeforestation: Did Ethiopia plant 350 million trees in a day?\u201d<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia’s claim that it planted more than 350 million tree seedlings in 12 hours on July 29, 2019, was possible but had not been independently confirmed, BBC Reality Check concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/moringa-tree-nursery-gurage-zone-ethiopia.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1bQu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283866"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837956,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283866\/revisions\/837956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}