Addis Ababa University (AAU) held a tree care program involving part of its employees and students from different departments of the Institution on Thursday, December 01, 2022 at Entoto Park.

Abebe Assefa (PhD), Director at Office of Community Engagement Services, said in an interview that the main purpose of the program was to observe and take care of the current conditions of the trees planted by the University community last summer which was deliberated to recover the area with native seedlings.

Dr. Abebe said that about 100,000 seedlings were prepared for the previous summer in the Natural Science Campus of the institution; half of them were planted in the Butajira campus of the Institution, and the other half were planted in Entoto Park and along the highways of the capital, Addis Ababa.

He also said that 1.5 million trees were planted around Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar cities during the winter months and that the work of watering and caring for the saplings was also being carried out accordingly.

“All the sapling seedlings we have planted are indigenous from Ethiopia; our main goal is to replace the areas covered by foreign trees with our own and create natural forests that are intended to bring higher benefits in the national ecosystem,” Dr. Abebe added.

According to Dr. Abebe, there are protected areas in the name of AAU where the workers go and take care of them every year and plant replacement seedlings. The University prepares and distributes to its community by preparing seedlings for gardens that can reach the table quickly, he added.

Tigist Habtamu, Urban Beautification Expert at Gulele Sub-city District Office of Urban Beautification and Green Development, said that since the summer of last year, many indigenous saplings have been planted under the coordination of her office and they will be monitored for care every three months.

The Expert explained that a large number of people are participating in the planting and watering of the saplings as well as in the Green Legacy program, by which more than five thousand saplings have been planted.

Teshome Alemayehu, from AAU Industry Linkage and Technology Transfer Office, said in the interview that one of the functions of the Green Initiative is to ensure that all living things in the ecosystem continue in a safe and sustainable manner.

He explained that by coordinating and involving many sections of the community, the task of transforming the bare areas into green forests is one of the most important SDGs worldwide.

“As planting trees should not be the sole responsibility of the government, every community should take responsibility believing it as their own. It is important to realize that all sections of the society will be benefited by planting trees,” Teshome remarked.

Reporter: Theodros Shewangizaw

Photographer: Andualem Aseffa

Editor: Abraham Girmay