On Monday, people across Kenya took part in the country's first national tree-planting holiday. The holiday was created by Kenya's president, William Ruto, to encourage people to plant trees as part of a plan to fight the climate crisis (危机).
Kenya is famous for its beautiful forests and wildlife. But large areas of Kenya's forests have been cut down, either for the wood, to clear the land for farming, or both. And those trees would normally help take in carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that's a major cause of the climate crisis.
In early November, to help get Kenya's great tree-planting effort started, the government declared November 13 a holiday—National Tree Growing Day. To prepare for the day, the government got 150 million seedlings ready for planting.
The government created a special app to help organize the tree planting. The app is called JazaMiti, which means "fill with trees" in Swahili. The app helps people collect trees, find places to plant, and record their efforts. The app will also help the government track how many trees have been planted in different areas around the country.
People all over Kenya turned out in large numbers to take part in the holiday. Elizabeth Wathuti, who works to protect the environment, was very happy about the support that Kenyans showed for tree planting. But she pointed out that it would be very important to continue to take care of the trees as they grow. "Tree planting is just the beginning," she said.
Many people were very excited about the tree-planting holiday. Some hope that it will happen every year.
