The risks of tree plantation in grassland and non-forest areas

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• Planting trees by the millions has come to be considered one of the main ways of reining in runaway carbon emissions and tackling climate change.
• But experts say many tree-planting campaigns are based on flawed science: planting in grasslands and other non-forest areas, and prioritising invasive trees over native ones.
• Experts point out that not all land is meant to be forested, and that planting trees in savannas and grasslands runs the risk of actually reducing carbon sequestration and increasing air temperature.
• The rush to reforest has also led to fast-growing eucalyptus and acacia becoming the choice of tree for planting, despite the fact they’re not native in most planting areas, and are both water-intensive and fire-prone.

A tree-planting frenzy has taken over many countries to counter climate change. In July 2019, Ethiopia announced that they planted more than 350 million trees in one day. A month later in India, the Uttar Pradesh government announced that more than a million people planted 220 million trees on a single day to increase the state’s forest cover.

The risks of tree plantation in grassland and non-forest areas