Tree-planting has become a cornerstone of many environmental campaigns in recent years. The call to plant trees is everywhere, seen as a simple and effective way to help reduce the impact of carbon emissions and restore natural ecosystems.

Perhaps the most ambitious example is the 1 trillion trees campaign launched by the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2020 in support of the UN’s Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, which aims to restore, protect, or plant 1 trillion trees by 2030. That followed a similar campaign aiming to plant 1 trillion trees by 2050 which was kicked off in 2018 by nature nonprofits including WWF.

This year Brits have been encouraged to join a nationwide tree planting effort in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Redditors have even got in on the act when in 2019, when they created a flood of memes encouraging prominent YouTuber Mr Beast to plant 20 million trees to celebrate hitting 20 million subscribers. Mr Beast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, accepted the challenge, started a fundraiser, and teamed up with the tree conservation charity the Arbour Day Foundation to help smash the target. 

But why is there such a big emphasis on tree-planting to curb the climate crisis? And can the humble tree really save the world?

The 3 Biggest Things You Should Know About Tree Planting

  • Trees are the ultimate carbon storage machines — 400 tons of carbon can be locked into just one hectare.
  • Restoring a forest the size of the US would store 205 billion tons of carbon — two-thirds of the 300bn tons emmitted since the industrial revolution.
  • Tree planting initiatives must be well-researched and planned —bad programmes will do more harm than good.

Read the full article about tree planting by Helen Lock at Global Citizen.