Ethiopia’s Green Legacy Initiative Should Be Supported, Widened: Ambassador Terekhin

Addis Ababa, June 7, 2023 (FBC) – Ethiopia’s Green Legacy Initiative should be “supported and widened” as it is crucial to mitigate climate change, Russia’s Ambassador to Ethiopia, Evgeny Terekhin said.

The Green Legacy Initiative is a flagship program launched by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in June 2019 with a target of planting 20 billion seedlings within a period of four years.

However, by the last fourth year, some 25 billion seedlings including trees, fruit, and cattle feeds have been planted as part of the national Green Legacy Initiative across the nation.

Ethiopia has been preparing to plant 6.3 billion seedlings during this rainy season as part of the national green legacy initiatives, it is learnt.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, Ambassador Terekhin said the Green Legacy Initiative is a “really wonderful step.”

“I have repeated on many occasions, green legacy initiative which was put forward by the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is a really wonderful step. It is to be supported by any one; I mean… be it separate citizen or some country because without saving our environment, there will be no life space left for the next generations,” he elaborated.

Therefore, the steps undertaken within the framework of green legacy initiative have a global minimum because we have aimed at saving space for future human kind, according to the ambassador.

The Ambassador said “it was great pleasure and honor for me, to also participate in certain events dedicated to the green legacy initiative and to plant some trees here in Entoto Park and in our embassy as well.”

To this end, this green legacy initiative is really good to be followed, he said, adding “it should be supported and widened.”

Moreover, the ambassador elaborated that the problem of climate change is a problem of global meaning and scope that needs cooperation to overcome the challenges.

“The climate change impacts on the day to day life of people’s own problems of security and so on. The problem of climate change is a problem of global meaning and scope and only by united efforts; we can overcome these challenges, which we are coming across now,” he underscored.

Recall Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Outstanding African Leadership Award by the American Academy of Achievement and the Global Hope Coalition in Washington DC, in recognition of his Green Legacy initiative, in December, 2022.

The Green Legacy Initiative has reinforced Ethiopia to building a green and climate resilient nation, rehabilitating degraded land across the country.