Ethiopian woman inspires community to plant trees
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Halima Kedir of Ethiopia’s Oromia region began planting trees on her own land, despite initial discouragement from her neighbors.
Initially, people in the Berbere district mocked Kedir’s efforts. However, as her garden flourished, she motivated others to plant banana, olive, and grevillea trees, demonstrating the positive impact trees can have on climate change and food security. Nationally, Ethiopia has experienced deforestation due to farmland expansion, logging, and charcoal production, losing approximately 560,000 hectares of tree cover between 2000 and 2025.
The government’s Green Legacy Initiative, launched in 2019, aims to combat this loss and has reported planting 48 billion trees since its inception, with a goal of 50 billion by 2030. Annual deforestation has fallen from 92,000 hectares in 2013 to 27,703 in 2023, while forest cover has risen from 15.5% to 23.6%. WaterAid Ethiopia is now supporting the expansion of Kedir’s work, distributing approximately 55,000 tree seedlings to households and community institutions.
They report an 85% success rate for seedling growth. Kedir sees the trees as extensions of her family and draws inspiration from the Oromo tradition of guddifachaa, which emphasizes nurturing and adoption. Researchers are currently working to more accurately assess long-term seedling survival rates.
