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The primary way that any buyer can verify their purchased offsets is by ensuring the company uses a third-party verifier, or a validation and verification body (VVB). Free Vacation | 8 Billion Trees Free Vacation $0.00 Click Here to get a free vacation to help plant trees. Birth 8 Feb 1855 - Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands. Retrieved July 17, 2021, from: https://forest-atlas.fs.fed.us/benefits-carbon-stocks.html, 6Terrapass. If there should be no trees, thats what you should also be restoring. Reforestation was a potent tool for climate crisis mitigation, just less so than initially suggested, and certainly not a replacement for decarbonisation. But the subject of the forest restoration controversy is never far away. Read more. Retrieved July 17, 2021, from: https://www.vox.com/2019/7/4/20681331/climate-change-solutions-trees-deforestation-reforestation, 9Global Forest Watch. Nobodys against trees, said Benioff, adding, This is a time of action, not words. Researchers have identified South Africa's Kruger National Park (seen here) as suitable for planting trees, even though it is mostly a natural open savanna ecosystem. Because of climate change, forests are increasingly vulnerable to destruction by drought, fire, insects, diseases, and storms, which releases carbon back into the atmosphere. Vox. Others have attempted far more dramatic feats: in 2016 one Indian state planted 50 million trees in one day, while in July last year Ethiopia claimed to have planted 350 million in a day. Once theres transparency across the whole system, everyone can call you out. But even as the arboreal campaigns have grown, dozens of scientists have warned that planting all those trees could potentially cause more harm than good. This implies natural climate solutions could mop up about 30% of the CO2 we need to deal with every year. The organization began in October 2004, with the central aim of helping people reduce their cars climate impact. The vision is to try to bring integrity into the process of protecting biodiversity, he says. As well as the climate emergency, were facing a biodiversity crisis, says Spracklen. Shortly afterwards she wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times headlined To save the planet, dont plant trees. Areas that are now used for farming such as rearing sheep on hill country can be difficult to reforest (Credit: Getty Images), The real uncertainties are not scientific, but socio-political. In July 2019, the British ecologist co-authored. Gujjars lost access to large grazing areas and were forced to sell their animals, abandon their traditional way of life, and seek low-paying jobs in distant cities. Desktop, Screen, and Laptop: 1,030 kgs of CO 2 e. Desktops and laptops (the most typical working setups) are responsible for the majority of the IT carbon footprint. Any organization enrolled in a carbon offset program with genuine climate-friendly goals would try to prevent this. Planting trees can help with both, he says, but only if we do it right. His work includes an award-winning film about eccentric birders in New York City and exposs of environmental crime throughout southern Africa. But a growing number of scientists are warning that these massive projects can wreck natural ecosystems, dry up water supplies, damage agriculture, and push people off their land. She points out that the polar regions are warming faster than the rest of the planet, so much of the snow may melt in the coming decades in which case planting trees will not make the ground that much darker. Theyre politically popular, media-friendly, and often have stunning numbers attached: In 2019, Ethiopia claimed to have planted 350 million saplings in less than 12 hours, smashing the world record for trees planted in a day. If the place should be a full forest, thats the level you should be restoring. He takes full responsibility for the failures, and, with a team of researchers, has been re-doing the analysis with a different approach. A study finds 1.8 billion trees and shrubs in the Sahara desert. People who live alongside and depend on the river would be affected too, says Prakash Kashwan, a political science professor at the University of Connecticut. Tree-planting initiatives have been further boosted by academic papers that claim enormous benefits from tree planting and maps that identify areas that could support more trees. Once we know that, then we can start targeting our questions: are those places recovering trees faster than places where theres not a restoration project? The companys swift success fueled its growth into combatting other greenhouse gas (GHG) -emitting sectors like air travel and general energy consumption. We want to protect and help Earth by planting and saving over 8 billion trees. Please view our privacy policy for more information. This wasnt good enough for hundreds of Twitter users, who saturated his timeline with yet more support for trees, reinforcing a powerful narrative thats taken hold around the world: Trees are the answer to climate breakdown and many other environmental and social ills, so we need to plant more of them billions or even trillions more. A study published in July 2019, led by Thomas Crowther of ETH-Zurich in Switzerland, estimated the world has room for an extra 0.9. Restoring forests may be one of our most powerful weapons in fighting climate change. If a person planted a tree every year for 20 years - and each one survived, which is highly unlikely - those 20 trees would take up about 1,000 pounds, or half a ton, of carbon dioxide per . The baseline calculations consider the average amount of carbon dioxide that would remain after a typical harvest, called common practice, guided by other forests carbon stock, or the capacity for capturing carbon dioxide, in the same region.5. The current focus on trees rather than grasses is partly a result of technological limitations: Its far easier and cheaper to measure above-ground carbon held in vegetation than carbon held below-ground in soil. It would be better to restore species-rich forests, he says. In the first year alone, Terrapass gained more than 2,400 members and reduced 36 million pounds of CO2.1. In the following years, Terrapass grew into a major resource of carbon credits, eventually helping more than 1,000 individuals and institutions mitigate their climate impact. Terrapass is one of many US carbon offset companies that have been under increasing scrutiny in recent months. For instance, a 2018 study suggested that large-scale tree planting in dry tropical regions would cause a shift in weather patterns, leading to more rainfall on land enabling more plant growth and therefore more carbon storage. By restoring forests in an area roughly the size of China, the press release accompanying the paper suggested two-thirds of all emissions from human activities still present in the atmosphere could be removed. The study also considered planting trees on savannas and grasslands, where planting non-native trees could cause problems for local species. Ukraine updates: Russia says defense minister visits Donbas, Russian mercenary chief says Bakhmut almost fully encircled, Biden thanks Scholz for 'profound' German support on Ukraine. If you plant trees there, youre losing livelihoods, youre losing future opportunities, and youre damaging natural biodiversity., Many planting proponents acknowledge that trees can have negative effects, but that putting the right trees in the right places can sequester carbon, rebuild forests, and enhance agricultural productivity. Many ecologists say that influential tree promoters dont do nearly enough to highlight the negative effects of planting ecologically inappropriate trees or afforesting areas that are naturally open. The study, led by Jean-Franois Bastin, a postdoctoral researcher at Crowthers lab in ETH Zrich, Switzerland, was the second most featured climate paper in the media in 2019, according to one analysis. That is a little over half our annual emissions, but they emphasise that many of the strategies they studied would not be cost-effective: a more plausible figure would be 11-15 billion tonnes of CO2 per year. (n.d.). Many Pashtuns grew alien eucalyptus on their pastures because it paid more than the traditional rentals. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of encouraging the genocide of indigenous tribes at the same time that hes pledged to open up more parts of the Amazon for development. Adam Welz is a South African writer, photographer, and filmmaker based in Cape Town. Additionality means that the offset project prevents a certain amount of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. However, a closer look at the companys standards and practices clarifies that its one of the most trustworthy climate-focused orgs in the world. AI analysis of satellite images sees trees and shrubs where human eyes can't. The first issue is that trees are dark, at least compared to other things that might blanket the land, such as grass or snow. Forest Monitoring, Land Use & Deforestation Trends | Global Forest Watch. "Administrative and other costs are not part of the allocated amount. April8,2021, In late January, the multibillionaire Elon Musk took to Twitter and abruptly announced, Am donating $100M towards a prize for best carbon capture technology. In other words, if we stopped cutting down trees we would cut our annual emissions by about 10%. Billion Tree Tsunami Programme Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The solution is to stop emitting all greenhouse gases, for instance by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources like solar power. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. Theyre assuming that snow covers going to stay there with warming, says Beverly Law of Oregon State University in Corvallis. Similar conflicts over land use exist in all countries. All of this makes it easier to offset your carbon footprint, and aids in the pursuit of furthering the mission to heal the planet and save animals. Not only might tree planting fail to reliably sequester carbon, trees can also heat the atmosphere more than many other habitat types. In April of this year, Carbon Plan published a scathing report showing that forestry offsets had been severely over-credited. Forests cannot be planted in isolation, he told DW, they need to have a canopy and understory where medicinal and herbal plantsmay flourish. In contrast, planting trees in snowy regions near the poles is likely to cause a net warming, while planting them in temperate climates like that of the UK, much of Europe and parts of the US may have no net effect on climate. The then US president, Donald Trump, and first lady, Melania, planting a tree on the south lawn of the White House in 2020. At this point we have emitted so much CO2, and left emissions cuts so late, that we are almost certain to miss our targets of limiting warming to 1.5C or 2C. The platform is focused on signing up NGOs initially about 30,000 so far, with tens of thousands in the process of being uploaded. Another big concern surrounding the call for planting a trillion trees is that it could distract from other efforts to slow down climate change, like stopping fossil fuel pollution and deforestation in the first place. Suddenly we are all being told to plant trees. Its dangerous to conflate restoration with adding trees, says Archibald, of Wits University, because often restoration means taking trees away.. He caught the eye of his Dutch backers, DOB Ecology, following his 2015 paper counting the planets three trillion trees, which remains the most authoritative estimate to date. A review paper published in Science last year shows that these threats, although significant and intensifying, arent always well understood and are difficult to compensate for. Since dark surfaces absorb more heat, a dark tree-covered surface will trap more of the Suns heat and warm the local climate. As a result, there is a delicate balance between trees ability to take in CO2, reducing warming, and their tendency to trap additional heat and thus create warming. Terrapass. Grasses are also less vulnerable to destruction by fire, drought, and disease. Despite what 8 billion trees says, they're usually connected to buying a timeshare, joining a vacation club, or entering into some other sort of contract. Forests can heal on their own if theyre allowed to, he says, and these forests end up being more resilient and more helpful in the climate fight than newly planted plots of trees. Barend 'Abraham' COZIJN. There are, however, environmentalists who support the project and dismiss the criticisms leveled against it. All Rights Reserved, By submitting your email, you agree to our. The message, then, is that trees can play a significant role in stopping dangerous climate change provided we plant them in the right places. Although some large tree planting programs, like Chinas, began decades ago, many observers tie the recent enthusiasm for tree-planting to the 2011 Bonn Challenge, a joint initiative of the German government and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to get governments to commit to restoring 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020. We can find the places that seem to be doing really great and learn from them. We deliberated for months before forming 8 Billion Trees, going back and forth on whether or not to register as a non-profit. The Crowther Lab, a research group at ETH Zrich, a Swiss research university, published a similar map in a 2019 Science paper titled The global tree restoration potential, which identified 900 million hectares of land available globally for new tree cover. For Nadine Unger of the University of Exeter in the UK, this is a major problem. The team mapped how tree crown diameter, coverage, and density varied depending on . This includes restoring wetlands and other ecosystems, and minimising emissions from farmland, but the biggest contributors by far were preserving existing forests and reforesting degraded areas. However, other reforestation experts are critical of Ungers findings. At the moment a lot of the trees being planted are monocultures of fast-growing commercial species like acacia or eucalyptus. (n.d.). (2014, August 29). If successful, the platform could help move away from the carbon in, carbon out logic underlying many conservation projects. The hope is that they will save us from the worst effects of climate change. In a 2017 study, researchers led by Bronsom Griscom, now at Conservation International, estimated the full potential of natural climate solutions. It turns out that California made some gross generalizations about regional forests carbon stocks. Restor will show very clearly those that are failing. Before you do anything, says Kate Hardwick, a Kew conservation scientist who co-authored the golden rules, see what you can protect. They estimated that reforestation could remove three billion to 18 billion tonnes of CO2 per year. They claimed in a letter that the campaign threatened to dry up streams and destroy habitats. As part of the provinces Billion Tree Tsunami, which began in 2014, the government gave free seedlings to landowners and paid them annually for every tree that survived. The idea is everywhere. 4,374 talking about this. For instance, the climate will keep changing for many decades, and this will affect trees behaviour and growth but we dont really know how yet. The skepticism isnt related to anything Terrapass has done particularly, but growing public uncertainty about the carbon marketplace. Congressional Research Service. Between 2003 and 2016, lands under indigenous control had the smallest losses of carbon because the forest stayed intact and regrew in places that had been disturbed. The UKs Royal Society came to similar conclusions in a 2018 report on greenhouse gas removal technologies. Deforestation is actually one of the biggest sources of carbon dioxide, because when trees are cut down much of the carbon stored within them escapes into the air especially if the wood is burned. We are at that point of urgency with our planet.. 8 Billion Trees is a carbon offset company that runs large-scale planting operations in the Amazon Rainforest. Scientists have begun their own public relations battle against numbers-driven, large-scale tree planting. They get new lives because you know, the World Economic Forum is talking about it, he says. By Adam Welz April 8, 2021 Ethiopia aimed to plant 5 billion seedlings in three months. Uncertainties do remain, however. I love Ikea one day Id like to go round, and find that theres an iPad with a Restor page, and it shows the spot in Iceland where the wood came from. The most notable concerns about carbon offset projects that companies like Terrapass support include their verifiability, how long the advantages last, leakage, and the selling of empty carbon credits.2. The verification process isnt just for confirming a projects validity. They say that planting programs, especially those based on large numerical targets, can wreck natural ecosystems, dry up water supplies, damage agriculture, push people off their land and even make global warming worse. The carbon marketplace is one of the most powerful tools we have to mitigate climate change effects. A study published in July 2019, led by Thomas Crowther of ETH-Zurich in Switzerland, estimated the world has room for an extra 0.9 billion hectares of forest. But the idea of planting individual trees isolates them from the microbes in the soil, the birds, the animals and the other plants that are necessary.. Also, planting trees is not just about stopping climate change. For the world to win in the fight against climate change, the best carbon offset providers like Terrapass have the potential to be a strong contender with tree planting offset options, as long as they remain transparent and provide real, positive ecological change that can be measured in the carbon offset marketplace. When trees are cut down, it is important that the carbon they contain is not released again into the atmosphere (Credit: Getty Images). You can find a list of approved VVBs from several authorities like the American Carbon Registry and Verra.6. Retrieved July 17, 2021, from: https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer, 5United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. Smart and Archibald say that we should be looking less at trees and forests and more under the literal surface for carbon storage solutions, because in many parts of the world, far more carbon is held in the soil than in aboveground biomass. Last month, a global review of tree-planting initiatives in the tropics and subtropics since 1961 found that while dozens of organisations reported planting a total of 1.4 billion trees, just 18% mentioned monitoring and only 5% measured survival rates. Many struggle because they dont have the right information.. The official criticized the lack of accountability and said that a number of people close to the chambers of power have set up nurseries from which the government buys the trees for planting. It is a project typical of his bigpicture thinking in ecology partly a consequence of a near fatal stroke in his mid-20s that has helped propel the 35-year-old from a postdoctoral researcher to a leading voice, with his own lab, in just a few years. Nature has its own mechanism for planting trees and you do not need to plant and look after them," the former forestry official said. We have cared for our lands and forests and the biodiversity they contain for generations. The reports authors state, Our analysis of crediting errors demonstrates that a large fraction of the credits in the program do not reflect real climate benefits. This means that the state overestimated its offsets by a staggering 30 million tCO2e. But its not always that simple. a film arguing for extra protections for the worlds forests, The UK government has planted millions of trees over the last decade, in 2016 one Indian state planted 50 million trees in one day, Ethiopia claimed to have planted 350 million in a day, a campaign encouraging all its readers to plant a tree, remove a quarter of the carbon dioxide currently in the air, the global total of 41 billion tonnes of CO2, one of the most effective carbon drawdown solutions to date, Crowther's team published an extensive correction, the best place to plant new trees is the tropics, we have created a cooling effect that slightly offset the warming from greenhouse gas emissions, a more plausible figure would be 11-15 billion tonnes of CO2 per year, natural climate solutions could mop up about 30% of the CO2 we need to deal with every year, a 2018 report on greenhouse gas removal technologies, planting trees in dry areas can cause water scarcity because they suck up so much, enabling more plant growth and therefore more carbon storage, planting rich new forests can boost local biodiversity, Similar conflicts over land use exist in all countries.