Ethiopia’s Green Legacy Initiative should be upscaled to other countries as it is pivotal in responding to climate change, African Union Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment Director Harsen Nyambe said.
The director told ENA that the Green Legacy is a very commendable initiative in mitigating the impacts of climate change across the continent.
“Effort of the Government of Ethiopia should actually be scaled up so that other member states can also learn from them,” Nyambe stated.
According to him, the concept of the Great Green Wall initiative on the continent and “such initiatives are quite important in terms of sequestration of carbon, but also actually support the livelihoods.”
In terms of expansion, what we can facilitate normally is sharing of best practices where we bring members of states to be able to support one another.
“I think Ethiopia can play a good role in that in terms of helping other member states to do what they are exactly doing.”
Recall that Ethiopia, as part of Ethiopia’s keen interest to share its experience of the Green Legacy initiative deployed youth to plant seedlings in South Sudan, Kenya, Djibouti, and Sudan.
Its youth assigned to African countries planted seedlings under the banner “Plant African Fraternity” with a view to strengthening unity and brotherhood among countries in the continent through green diplomacy in October, 2022.
The government is also working to expand the campaign to neighboring countries with a view to creating a Green Africa by providing seedlings, according to government sources.
AU Technical Coordinator for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Gatkuoth Kai said on his part that the intuitive is very pivotal in ecosystem and climate change adaptation.
“The Green Legacy Initiative is a very important program because forest and ecosystem system health is very important. I also think the Green Legacy Initiative is very important for climate change program adaptation,” he added.
He believes that many countries need to follow this example, especially the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. “This is really very welcome and the way to go forward.”
The Green Legacy Initiative is a flagship program in June 2019 with a target of planting 20 billion seedlings within a period of four years.
However, by the fourth year, 25 billion seedlings, including fruit trees and cattle feeds were planted as part of the national initiative across the nation.
Last week, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched the second phase of the Green Legacy Initiative in the Afar region; and the nation is set to plant 6.5 billion seedlings during this rainy season.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency