Journalist Hugs Tree for 24 Hours and Sets Guinness World Record

Abdul Hakim Awal, a 23-year-old journalist from Ghana (Africa), broke the world record for the longest tree hug.

This was reported by the Guinness World Records website.

The record holder hugged the tree for 24 hours and 21 minutes and broke the previous record of environmental activist Faith Patricia Ariokot from Uganda, who did the same for 16 hours. 

Abdul took on the record to highlight the importance of conservation in Ghana and to launch a nationwide tree planting initiative.

He pledged to plant a new tree for every minute that he attempted to set the record, and eventually planted 1,461 trees.

Abdul was not allowed to take any breaks during the record setting - he had to stand with his arms around the tree for the entire time. However, Guinness World Records decided that future applicants would be allowed to take breaks (two hours a day in total) to avoid the harmful effects of sleep deprivation.

Abdul is not the first Ghanaian to set a world record for hugging trees this year. Recently, a student, Abubakar Tahiru, hugged a record number of trees in an hour - 1,123.