
Ethiopia beats its goal and plants over 350M trees in 12 hours - elorant
https://www.insider.com/ethiopia-beats-goal-plants-350-million-trees-in-12-hours-2019-7
======
WalterSear
The Ethiopean government shut down the internet for an extended period a
couple of months ago, just before "surviving" a coup attempt that probably
wasn't a real coup attempt. The Chief of the Army and a regional Attorney
General were killed. Mass detentions are ongoing, and the leader of the
opposition NAMA party and dozens of party members were arrested.

On that same day, news reports emerge that Ethiopia is going to plant 200
million trees in one day. Lo and behold, only a few days later, they nearly
doubled that. Amazing!

Or maybe the 350 million trees planted in Ethiopia in a day is just bullshit
propaganda to distract from what would appear to be a collapse in Ethiopian
democracy.

~~~
9nGQluzmnq3M
I don't disagree, but saying that Ethiopia has ever been a democracy is pretty
charitable. The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, which is
about as democratic as you'd expect with a name like that, has been in power
ever since the admittedly worse Marxist Derg was kicked out in 1987.

------
sriacha
There's no mention of diversity of tree species, or efforts to match species
with local conditions.

Mass tree planting efforts can be relatively unsuccessful, see China's Great
Green Wall Project [1] which has resulted in large monocultures where nothing
else can grow and greatly lowered groundwater levels.

Also the history of the equivalent in Africa, which this planting is a part of
[2].

[1] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-
North_Shelter_Forest_P...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-
North_Shelter_Forest_Program)

[2] [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/great-green-
wa...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/great-green-wall-stop-
desertification-not-so-much-180960171/)

~~~
jeromegv
Or the silent forest in Bohol Philippines. Visited and while it’s truly
beautiful, there is no sound at all. No birds.
[https://iamtravelinglight.com/2012/10/09/the-dark-side-of-
bo...](https://iamtravelinglight.com/2012/10/09/the-dark-side-of-bohols-bilar-
manmade-forest-an-appeal-to-people-planting-trees/)

~~~
dmarlow
I've noticed this as well in the redwoods in northern California. Some groves
are completely silent. I'm not sure why that is. These are natural forests, so
I'm puzzled as to why there aren't many birds.

~~~
vsef
I live in a redwood forest and it is noticeably quieter of insect and bird
sounds compared to nearby down out of the forest a bit, but not as silent as
in an old growth grove.

The redwood canopy blocks out a lot of light, the thicker it is, the harder
for any plants to grow down below. The redwood leaves acidify the soil over
time as they fall, there is a limited range of plants that can handle it. And
then the trees themselves are highly insect resistant, there are no insects
living in bark for example.

So basically: bottom of the food chain for birds isn't there, especially not
down on the floor in old growth with so much light blocked out.

------
hpcjoe
What troubles me about this is the rate of planting. The idea of reforestation
is hopefully a net positive. But the rate of planting seems improbable.

350M seedlings/trees. 12 hours or 43200 seconds. This works out to roughly
8102 per second.

So start with 1M people planting these trees, that would be 350 trees per
person. Or roughly 29 trees per hour. So a tree every 2 minutes for a million
people doing this.

Non-stop. For 12 hours.

I know, many assumptions built into this. If they had 10M people, it would be
35 trees over 12 hours, which I think is far more manageable.

And the people aren't uniform. Some will plant (far) more/faster than others.
I'd expect some sort of long tail distribution for the rapid planters, with
peak(s) around mode(s).

Just thinking aloud, that politicians may be politicianing, and reality will
be somewhat different. Definitely curious about the participation rate of the
population. And what the abrupt introduction of 0.35T trees will do to
groundwater levels, aquifers, etc.

[edit: to correct a spelling error]

~~~
sandworm101
For anyone looking for the realities of planting trees en masse, BC has a long
history with industrial tree-planting:

[http://www.nationalpost.com/m/pains+gains+tree+planters+five...](http://www.nationalpost.com/m/pains+gains+tree+planters+five+months+repetitive+work+harsh/9894094/story.html)

>> This month, as B.C.’s planting season reaches full throttle, about 3,500
people are slinging seedlings into soil up and down the province. Industry
bosses expect them to plant 240 million trees in the province by the time the
season ends this fall.

>> Eating Dirt author Charlotte Gill’s pay ranged between six cents and about
a dollar for each seedling planted during her 17 years as a tree planter.

~~~
lytfyre
Another really interesting figure from that article:

> 3,500 people are slinging seedlings into soil [...] > punching about 80 baby
> trees a second

That works out to about 1.3 minutes of work per tree planted.

They do note that it's skilled labour - it takes a few seasons experience to
hit those rates. But BC conditions may not be the friendliest, either.

Hitting similar totals in a day instead of six months, but with perhaps 2-3
orders of magnitude more people is an extremely impressive effort!

------
Timucin
Some already pointed out, I am also curious about sustainability and how many
trees will survive in future BUT I am incredibly amazed of the number of trees
planted in just 12 hours. I might be naive in this thinking but it gives me
hope about what we can achieve once we have to.

~~~
kleton
See church forests in Ethiopia. These are just lands that were fenced off from
grazing, and they look like random oases in the desert. So clearly trees can
survive in the general area.

[https://www.inverse.com/article/53851-church-forest-
ethiopia...](https://www.inverse.com/article/53851-church-forest-ethiopia-
conservation)

~~~
pvaldes
> Deforestation became rampant when the land was nationalized in 1974 and much
> of the forests became converted to farmland. only the 5% survives.

It seems that Brazil is in the way to become the new Etiophia... and that for
some reason chopping the forest lead to water saying bye-bye and welcoming
hard, regular and extensive famines.

------
morkfromork
Where do you get 350 million trees or even 350 million seedlings?

~~~
CapitalistCartr
In the United States, the Forestry Service provides them. Only commercially
useful varieties, but they sell seedlings in units of 1,000 quantity. A
thousand isn't that big. I can easily pick up the bundle. Large companies buy
tens and hundreds of thousands each year.

~~~
lokl
In the U.S., some states also sell seedlings and in quantities less than 1000.
A few examples (with prices):

New York:
[https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/75799.html](https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/75799.html)

Virginia: [http://dof.virginia.gov/infopubs/Seedling-Price-
Guide_2018-2...](http://dof.virginia.gov/infopubs/Seedling-Price-
Guide_2018-2019_pub.pdf)

Washington: [https://www.dnr.wa.gov/programs-and-services/forest-
resource...](https://www.dnr.wa.gov/programs-and-services/forest-
resources/webster-forest-nursery/seedling-prices-and-availability)

~~~
Consultant32452
My county gives away trees to anyone willing to plant them in their yard. They
are not seedlings either, but probably a year or older.

~~~
godelski
Which country?

~~~
mgsouth
DDG "county tree give-away" shows lots of links:

Henrico County, VA: [https://henrico.us/services/tree-seedling-
giveaway/](https://henrico.us/services/tree-seedling-giveaway/)

Arlington County, VA: [https://environment.arlingtonva.us/register-for-your-
free-tr...](https://environment.arlingtonva.us/register-for-your-free-tree/)

State of Mississippi: [https://www.mfc.ms.gov/mississippi-arbor-day-tree-
giveaways-...](https://www.mfc.ms.gov/mississippi-arbor-day-tree-giveaways-
sales-2019)

DeSoto County, CA: [http://www.desotoswcd.com/annual-public-tree-
giveaway.html](http://www.desotoswcd.com/annual-public-tree-giveaway.html)

and so on...

~~~
masonic
Correction: DeSoto County is in MS.

------
stevoski
The BBC radio show/podcast More or Less recently investigated whether this was
a) possible and b) true.

[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz3rb](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz3rb)

------
ericdykstra
How does restorative tree planting work in the long run? Does it eventually
lead to a stable ecosystem, or is it something that ends up less stable or
otherwise worse off when compared to a natural recovery?

~~~
microcolonel
Far as I can tell this region would not necessarily be naturally tree-covered
if they just left it.

~~~
Panino
According to the article, Ethiopia was 30% forested at the end of the 19th
century, and is now at only 4%. What's unnatural is the current state, and
reforesting will help correct that.

Something to note is that the point isn't for _every_ tree planted to survive.
It's for some of them to survive. Those trees will then grow and drop leaves
in fall, improve soil health, provide a canopy layer for vines, shrubs, herbs
and animal life, and self-seed new trees to join and replace them. Over time
the system as a whole will grow until it reaches stability. Right now they're
at step 1, planting, which comes after step 0, deciding to plant.

We should follow their lead and plant native trees wherever we are.

~~~
microcolonel
I said that it wouldn't if they left it, since parent seemed to imply that
this region would reforest itself.

------
Cenk
Previous discussion (247 comments):
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20561227](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20561227)

------
known
Ethiopia: 84.7% live under $5.5 a day
[https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/103108831965484236...](https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1031088319654842369)

------
adrian_mrd
Interesting European startup, LandLifeCompany, whose mission is to: “restore
the world’s 2 billion hectares of degraded land.”:
[https://landlifecompany.com/](https://landlifecompany.com/)

I wonder if any of their technology was used in these planting days in
Ethiopia?

------
gilrain
Better to do nothing than incur the banal nitpicking of software engineer
armchair arborists.

~~~
i_am_nomad
Better to keep your mouth shut than spin outrageous and easily disproven
claims.

------
lota-putty
Let's hope we'll get to see the difference on satellite maps over the years to
come.

------
erentz
Where do all of these saplings come from and how do they get to the planters?
In these articles it sounds like they came out of thin air.

~~~
chippy
a few trees can make their own forest in a few years, it doesnt need humans

------
WalterBright
Planting trees, lots of them, should be a major part of any effort to reduce
climate change and improve the environment. Furthermore, it's cheap, it works,
and trees are beautiful.

And yet there's little talk about it, and even less action.

Congrats to Ethiopia for actually doing something real.

~~~
chippy
it feels good at a surface level but as with most things, look below the
surface and its less black and white

------
daneel_w
This means that every citizen - including the 40% of the population who are
aged 14 or younger - planted 3.5 trees each. To me it seems like a stretch to
get even one in five citizens aboard a national project.

------
tmikaeld
I'd guess nurturing and looking after such large amounts, would be no small
task either.

~~~
onetimemanytime
My guess is that no nurturing is possible on 350mm trees. Just plant and hope
for the best. The first year is crucial water wise...

------
humble_engineer
"However, the prime minister's office said specially developed software is
helping with the count."

I have no doubt people are planting trees but this quote makes me feel like
perhaps someone should do so numbers on this, 300 million just doesn't sound
right unless somewhere like 500,000 people are participating, if that is what
is happening I feel like getting 500,000 people to participate is a story in
and of itself.

