Ethiopia’s Green Legacy, Landscape Restoration Special Fund Exemplary for Other Countries: Report

Addis Ababa, May 31, 2025 (ENA) --  Ethiopia's newly established Green Legacy and Landscape Restoration Special Fund represents a groundbreaking initiative that establishes Ethiopia as a leader in leveraging federal resources for extensive restoration efforts, creating a strong example for other countries around the globe to emulate, World Resources Institute remarked.

The government of Ethiopia launched the Green Legacy and Landscape Restoration Special Fund, allocating 0.5% to 1% of its annual federal budget — about $40 to $80 million — to restoring degraded landscapes.

Approved by the House of Peoples’ Representatives on Dec. 24, 2024, the fund positions Ethiopia as a pioneer in using federal resources to advance large-scale restoration, setting a powerful precedent for other nations across the world to follow, as noted by the institute in an article.

The fund forms part of Ethiopia’s broader Green Legacy Initiative (GLI), a national program launched in 2019 to combat environmental degradation and build a greener, more climate-resilient country.

By establishing a dedicated financing mechanism, the country aims to scale up its restoration efforts with sustainable public investment. Ethiopia’s new Green Legacy and Landscape Restoration Special Fund mark a significant step in Ethiopia’s restoration journey.

Until now, the Green Legacy Initiative relied on regular federal and regional support without a dedicated budget. By institutionalizing the special fund, Ethiopia aims to ensure the long-term sustainability of its landscape restoration efforts while creating opportunities to mobilize additional resources and scale up restoration initiatives nationwide.

The government aims to leverage these resources to attract investment in restoration beyond federal contributions — including from regional governments, development partners, civil society organizations and private sector actors. This could help scale efforts even further, far beyond what public funds alone can support.

By demonstrating how national resources can be mobilized and institutionalized to support long-term landscape restoration, Ethiopia is setting a precedent that others could follow, the article noted stating that this new model of restoration financing not only strengthens regional collaboration, but also accelerates collective progress toward land restoration and climate resilience in Africa’s most vulnerable landscapes.

The GLI recognizes that land restoration is more than just planting trees — it can improve food security, enhance air quality, increase water availability, boost climate resilience and create jobs. Ethiopia’s approach offers a promising model for how stable public financing can drive large-scale restoration in climate-vulnerable countries.

Ethiopia has emerged as a global leader in landscape restoration in recent years, driving change through bold action and ambitious targets.

Through its GLI, the country exceeded its initial goals by planting over 25 billion trees in just four years, including a reported 350 million trees in a single day in August 2019, a feat believed to have set an unofficial new world record. Ethiopia has so far planted more than 40 billion seedlings over the past six years through the initiative. This year, the plan is to plant 7.5 billion seedlings.

The Green Legacy initiative has already generated significant social benefits, including the creation of more than 767,000 jobs in areas such as nursery management, seedling production, agroforestry and sustainable land management throughout the country —  many of them for women and youth.