In July 2019, hundreds of peasants spent a whole day planting 20,000 acacia shoots near the city of Buee in southern Ethiopia, responding to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's call to plant 200 million trees in one day. The record had been taken up by newspapers around the world.

A year later, and while the world celebrates, Friday, June 5, the day of the Environment, the results are not up to the ardor of the peasants, admits Ewnatu Kornen, a local official. More than a third of these shoots were swept away by the rains and the survivors struggle to thrive in this not very fertile ground.

Four billion trees planted between September and June

The disappointment of Buee farmers illustrates the pitfalls of the Ethiopian reforestation campaign, a key area of ​​Abiy Ahmed's "Green Heritage" program, aimed at developing ecotourism and transforming the country into an environment-friendly economy .   

Some 353 million young trees - 153 million more than the original target - were planted across the country that day, according to official figures. The latter more widely estimate that four billion trees were planted during the rainy season, between June and September in Ethiopia.

Even if the coronavirus pandemic forced him to impose a state of emergency in April, the Ethiopian Prime Minister remains determined to reach the objective of planting five billion trees this year, while "respecting the measures of distancing social ".

During a ceremony Friday in Hawassa (south), he even displayed the ambition to plant 20 billion in four years, thus going beyond the five billion already planned for this single rainy season 2020.

Doubts about the credibility of the figures

Ambitious and attractive, the Ethiopian reforestation program is also the subject of criticism. 

Abroad, doubts have been expressed as to the credibility of the impressive figures for the past year. On the spot, certain experts dispute the organization and the follow-up of this campaign.

"The main thing is not the figures (...) but the effectiveness of the planting program," says Negash Teklu, head of the Ethiopian Consortium for Population, Health and the Environment, a group of 'Local NGOs.

He claims to support the Prime Minister's reforestation policy, but he suspects that the tree survival rate announced by Abiy Ahmed in May - 84% of the 4 billion planted - is "highly exaggerated". No independent study has been conducted.

In the future, Negash Teklu believes, the authorities will have to better guide the distribution of shoots and better explain to citizens how reforestation can improve their lives.

"Unite our people"

Belaynesh Zewdie, forest expert from the United Nations Development Program, based in Buee, was at the forefront of observing how such projects can go wrong without community support. 

In the late 1980s, under the Communist regime of Derg, she participated in the planting of a million acacia trees in the Amhara region (north). When the Derg fell in 1991, angry residents uprooted the trees from this centrally imposed project to cultivate the land, she recalls.

For the past few years, Belaynesh Zewdie has worked on a project which this time attempts to bring concrete benefits to local populations. In addition to employing 17 local women, this program includes, for example, the construction of ponds for livestock keepers. Since then, hectares of trees have grown. "In a short time, you can change a lot," says Belaynesh Zewdie. "I’m impressed myself every time I come here. It’s amazing." 

In view of the upcoming general elections, the date of which has not yet been fixed, the authorities hope that the initiative will help to overcome political and ethnic divisions and "unite our people", underlines Sileshi Degefa, director of the Garden botanical Gullele from Addis Ababa. 

With AFP

The France 24 week summary invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you! Download the France 24 app

google-play-badge_FR