Fifty billion trees by 2030: How Ethiopia is recruiting citizens across the country to plant, plant, plant

When Halima Kedir first began planting trees, she was met with scepticism and even mockery.

“My neighbours discouraged me,” she says, sitting on a wooden chair in her garden, which is lush with the trees and fruits she has planted – banana, olive and grevillea among them.

“They thought I was striving for nothing, but with time, many are realising that trees can be part of the solution to our problems as a way to fight climate change and food insecurity,” she says.

Kedir (35) who lives in the Berbere district of Ethiopia’s Oromia region, became an accidental environmentalist after planting thousands of trees – she has lost count of how many – inspiring others to follow suit.