Success Story
Located in the southern central part of Ethiopia—Oromia National Regional State, Adama is a dynamic and fast-growing city, with a current population of over half a million citizens. The city administration has early on embraced the motto: “Healthy forests for a healthy and robust city.” A good functioning forest ecosystem is indispensable for our climate resilience; hence, a regenerating tropical indigenous biodiversity in and around our city is among our top priorities. Adama city is an active participant of the Ethiopian Green Legacy initiative, focusing on the planting of trees, fruit-plants within, and on the periphery of the city. This initiative has resulted in more than fifty hectares of hilly surrounding places being covered with green refreshing trees over the past two years. We are envisioning making our city as the “green-lung” of our sub-region, by creating a two-way urban-rural partnership with an extensive element of community engagement. The Cities4Forests global initiative to conserve and restore forests in and around city boundaries is a welcome effort from which we can learn immensely, exchange views, ideas, share experiences, and get overall support, and appreciation from partner cities around the globe. Cities4Forests may create a vital opportunity for industries, financial institutions, and other global partners to further embrace and actively strengthen our forest conservation, restoration, and sustainability management efforts.
