According to Guinness World Records, a Ghanaian activist sets a record by hugging over 1,100 trees in one hour.

A Ghanaian forestry student and environmental activist has broken the record for the most trees hugged in an hour. Abubakar Tahiru, 29, embraced 1,123 trees in total—nearly 19 every minute on average.

Growing up in an agricultural hamlet in Tepa, Ghana, Abubakar became deeply interested in the preservation of nature.

Abubakar relocated to Alabama, USA, last year to start his master’s program in forestry at Auburn University, following the completion of his undergraduate studies with a focus on forestry at one of Ghana’s best colleges.

One of the four national forests in the timber-rich state of Alabama, Tuskegee National Forest, was the site of his record attempt.

For the sake of this documentation, an embrace is described as having both arms encircling a tree in a tight hug. The attempt will be rejected if a tree is hugged more than once or if any harm is done to any trees.

The most difficult aspect of the record attempt, according to Abubakar, was needing to travel fast between trees while making sure that every hug fulfilled the requirements. He also discovered that the act of repeatedly hugging was exhausting.

The fact that he was fasting for Ramadan and thus was unable to drink any water made his endeavor to break the record considerably more difficult.

“The inability to consume water during the endeavor presented a notable obstacle, particularly considering the physical strain involved,” stated Abubakar.

But in a way, this also worked to my advantage because I was able to complete the endeavor without having to stop for water breaks.

Abubakar easily beat the minimal threshold of 700 to become the first holder of this record, averaging one hug every three seconds. “It feels so rewarding to achieve this world record,” he remarked.

“It’s a heartfelt gesture to emphasize the importance of environmental conservation and the critical role that trees play in our ecosystem.”

Abubakar now intends to increase his involvement in forestry by working on the creation of sustainable methods and partnering with environmental organizations to support sustainable initiatives, following his achievement of this world record.