11 Years of Eritrea’s Green Campaign (ሓምላይ ወፍሪ)
Eritrea’s Green Campaign was launched 11 years ago, when May 15 was established to be the National
Afforestation Day in 2006. The objective of this campaign is to restore the environment (forest and wild
life) by planting trees (and related programmes and activities, such as soil and water conservation),
establishing reserved areas and national parks, distributing the energy (firewood) efficient Adhanet
stove (smokeless stove) and enhancing awareness of the society about preserving forests and wildlife,
throughout the country. From the outset, it was decided that the Greening Campaign was to be a
community based programme, where the community, students and military forces are the main driving
force of making the campaign successful. Furthermore, schools, religious places, public and private
institutions, slopes, residential areas, urban avenues and streets, borderlines of farmlands etc. were
identified as the primary targets for greening. Since 2006, the achievements registered in the last 11
years are very encouraging.
Activities throughout the country Achievements until 2017
Trees planted: 42 million trees
Hectares covered by plants: Over 16,000 hectares
Hectares reserved (enclosed) for greening: 300,000 ha (160,000 ha being national parks)
are already enclosed and an additional 500,000
ha is proposed and in the process to be
national parks
Adhanet stoves distributed: Over 150,000
Green Clubs established: 530
The Greening campaign is led and coordinated by Greening Campaign Committee composed of
members from the Ministry of Agriculture, Eritrean Mapping and Information Center of the Office of the
President, and Ministry of Information.
The regulatory law that supports the greening campaign is the Declaration on Forest and Wildlife
Conservation No. 155/2006.
Historical records show that until the 1970s 30% of Eritrea’s land was covered by forests. But the
successive Ethiopian colonization in general and the coming of the Dergue to power in Ethiopia in 1974
in particular, resulted in forest mismanagement, destructive colonial policies, intensified war, and
draught and climate changes wrecked havoc on the environment and as a consequence forest coverage
declined to about 1%. Immediately after independence in 1991, the Eritrean government initiated
various community based programmes and activities to recover the devastated environment, such as
soil and water conservation, planting trees and awareness enhancing of the people. A notable example
of these programmes was and still is the Students’ Summer Work Programme which started in 1994.
Through this programme, in the last 23 years over 400 thousand students have planted over 22 million
trees throughout the country. Therefore, the Greening Campaign is a continuation of these programmes
but designed to give it impetus with a more focused and institutional approach.
See attached for more reading on Eritrea's Green Campaign
