Hundreds of thousands of people will be gathering in Kenya on November 11 to try and beat the Guinness World Record of tree planting. As part of an ambitious tree planting project for a more sustainable environment, they are aiming to plant five million trees in just one hour.

There is a much bigger picture to all of this, though. The government of Kenya through the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the Kenya Red Cross Society, and the International Federation of Red Cross, and Red Crescent Societies are pursuing a program aimed at planting 2.5 billion trees by the year 2030. The ministry partners hope this challenge will encourage Kenyans to plant ecological suitable trees species.

Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Natural Resources, Judi Wakhungu said in a statement: “To realize the goal of planting 2.5 Billion trees by 2030, the Ministry partners' and stakeholders will undertake various initiatives, one of them being the planting of marathon five Million trees in one hour in early November 2016. Kenya's current forest cover of two percent falls below the global convention of 10 percent, and with increasing poverty, demand for arable land and rapid population growth, the situation is deemed to get worse. The project will also increase the capacity to adapt to the impact of climate change combat desertification, guarantee water, food security and livelihoods by conserving water catchments.”

More than a quarter of a million people are expected to participate in the record-breaking initiative that will contribute immensely to growing more trees in degraded ecosystems and restoring water catchments and river basins in Kenya.

To break the record, participants will have to plant more than 2.29 million trees in one hour – the current tree planting record held by TreeVolution, an NGO in the Philippines, set in September 2014.

Even if you don't live in Kenya or aren't able to participate in the program, you can still contribute to these efforts. Kenya Red Cross Society is launching a mobile app called Adopt-A-Tree which is powered by GPS and social technologies to allow anyone and everyone to plant a tree. You will also have the option to select specific locations in Kenya by paying $3.50 per tree.

Do you think Kenya will break the Guinness World Record for tree planting? Make your prediction in the comment section below.