An article in DevEx discusses issues surrounding tree planting, such as “what are the implications for food security, biodiversity and landscape protection”.

In China, efforts focused on afforestation (establishing forest on land that was not previously forested) have often increased environmental degradation in the long-term with fast-growing trees drawing moisture from the soil causing them to die. Only 15 per cent of trees planted for afforestation in northern China have survived.

Similarly, in the northern states of Nigeria worst hit by desertification, nearly 4 out of every 5 seedlings that are planted each year die within 2 months. And in Haiti, which only has 3 per cent forest cover, 60 per cent of trees that were planting in the 1980s under a World Bank program died.

The article suggests that “rather than focusing solely on afforestation, recreating natural ecosystems would provide a better chance of fighting desertification”.

In the Sahel region of Africa, success has been achieved through farmer-managed natural regeneration whereby farmers allow native trees and shrubs to regrow from remnant underground root systems and/or plant new trees among crops. This form of agroforestry has been practiced by more than a million rural households in Niger across around 5 million hectares. The trees provide shade, they regenerates soils, fertilize the ground and lead to greater food security.

With forest fragmentation, there is a need to focus on connecting patches of forest through planting ‘forest bridges’ along which pollinators and animal dispersers can travel. A new forest law in Brazil requires all rural properties to maintain Forest Legal Reserves to protect natural vegetation on 20 to 80 percent of land. There is also a system in place that is seeing large landowning companies paying smallholders to regenerate their own land, and this may result in small scattered clumps of restored land that provide greater connectivity than larger, aggregated landscapes.

Read the full story: The difference one tree can make

See also: The baffling simplicity of FMNR