By the end of the day, they had planted 800 million young trees. Ethiopia beat it, planting 4.7 billion, including 350 million in one day, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. In both 2023 and 2024 the figure reached 7.5 billion, taking the running total past 32 billion trees, the ministry’s figures show. To this day, Ethiopia has planted more than 48 billion seedlings and the effect is already visible. That is a quieter task than a national planting day, and a far longer one but what the programme has already achieved is a change in habit.