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The repeated assessment of soil carbon stocks is currently too time-consuming and expensive to use at the scale that would be required to verify stocks for carbon credits. Depending on soil types and climate, grasses often use less water to sequester soil carbon than trees do, and can do so faster and more effectively at higher temperatures. Recent years have seen massive tree-planting projects announced and rolled out. Experts believe planting trees can be good for nature but doing so without due consideration can have negative effects. 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. In the first year alone, Terrapass gained more than 2,400 members and reduced 36 million pounds of CO2.1. However, scientists say we must not place too much faith in trees to save us. By some estimates, trees can be an enormous carbon sink. From Lab to Market: Bio-Based Products Are Gaining Momentum, How Tensions With Russia Are Jeopardizing Key Arctic Research, How Illegal Mining Caused a Humanitarian Crisis in the Amazon. If you liked this story,sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A plantation site for the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Project in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The study also considered planting trees on savannas and grasslands, where planting non-native trees could cause problems for local species. Some feared the paper would be used to justify indiscriminate tree-planting, with damaging consequences for biodiversity, agriculture and access to water. (2014, August 29). The underlying problem is that our society is releasing greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), that are warming the Earths climate to levels we have never experienced before. The Pakistani government's plan to plant 10 billion trees has garnered national and international praise. 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. 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. Uniting One World with 8 Billion Trees - UNA-USA The criticism has hit home. Before you do anything, says Kate Hardwick, a Kew conservation scientist who co-authored the golden rules, see what you can protect. For instance, much of the land Crowther described as available for tree planting already has plants growing on it, all of them storing carbon, many of which would have to be removed, according to Sonia Seneviratne of ETH-Zurich and her colleagues. 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. This causes a net increase in GHG emissions, but the company appears to have lowered their carbon output. Everyone [in restoration] wants to do good. The lead author of that study, however, cautions against pitting all tree planting efforts against forest conservation. (Image) 6 Sally Archibald, an ecologist at Wits University in South Africa, says that planting enthusiasts often overlook the fact that people are using all this land that everyone thinks is available for planting trees. And their numbers keep growing: A company called tentree recently promised to plant a billion trees by 2030, beating Benioffs commitment by an order of magnitude. 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. Make sure you get the right mix of species and the right social context and you can actually have a positive impact.. The UKs Royal Society came to similar conclusions in a 2018 report on greenhouse gas removal technologies. 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. Fossil fuel colossus Shell says that 700 million hectares of forest must be planted this century to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees C an area just smaller than Brazil. Women participating in Ethiopias mass tree-planting campaign in Addis Ababa last June. In this case, the project isnt making a difference since the carbon dioxide can and will be offset without it. The researchers really did a pretty good job, she says. The company supports three different forestry programs, one of which is in Humboldt, CA. Retrieved July 17, 2021, from: https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer, 5United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. Wang Jiang/VCG via Getty Images. They also crowd out native species and increase the fuel available to wildfires, making these more dangerous. However, it does have some drawbacks. In other words, if we stopped cutting down trees we would cut our annual emissions by about 10%. This creates more low cloud, or thicker low cloud, which also bounces sunlight back to space. Retrieved July 17, 2021, from: https://www.Terrapass.com/about-us/about-us-Terrapass-difference, 2Gorte, R. W., & Ramseur, J. L. (2008). Its up to us to make our own maps, she says. High-profile programs aimed at planting billions of trees are being launched worldwide. Government supporters are benefitting from the project, the official claimed. The companys forestry projects fall under the authority of the VCS, among others, while its landfill and livestock projects are in accordance with the CAR. We drive change by mobilizing the private sector, facilitating multi-stakeholder partnerships in key regions, and supporting innovation and ecopreneurship on the ground. 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. His work includes an award-winning film about eccentric birders in New York City and exposs of environmental crime throughout southern Africa. You dont need to plant a tree to regenerate a forest, Fleischman tells The Verge. A plantation site for the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Project in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Some international bodies have also claimed that the project has created around 85,000 jobs. Restoring trees to the landscape is truly a win-win for the climate and communities but we need to start planting now for new . Specifically, California over-credited its forest carbon offsets program (the largest in the world, valued at $2 billion) by a shocking 29.4%.4. As a result, planting more trees typically makes the land darker. Unfortunately, it stands to reason that Californias cap-and-trade system isnt the only source of potentially overestimated forestry credits. The fifth most populous country in the world with over 24% of its people living in poverty, Pakistan is one of the states most vulnerable to the changing climate. These include counting the planets 0.4 sextillion nematodes, Earths most abundant animal. So long as a tree lives, that carbon stays within it and trees can live for decades or centuries. (n.d.). Even Donald Trump, who has thrown a wrench into US and global efforts to tackle climate change, said the US would sign onto the campaign, called 1t.org. His critique made the case that the amount of carbon the study said 1 trillion trees could sequester was about five times too large. "Imagine billions of trees and calculate the total cost, which could have been diverted for clearing the river banks, ensuring the flow of water from rivers that would have led to natural growth of trees without spending any money," he said. Crowther says Restor is his lifes vision, mapping the latest data and thousands of conservation projects. But the subject of the forest restoration controversy is never far away. "One of the factors leading to fire in various parts of the world is the elimination of grazing areas, which helps prevent such catastrophes," he said. 2. 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. But since the study was published, it has faced intense scientific criticism. "They have not appointed sufficient staff to look after these trees and who will look after them in hilly areas and desert regions anyway?". They estimated that reforestation could remove three billion to 18 billion tonnes of CO2 per year. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. It gives the impression of plantations everywhere. Benioff views Crowther as a Steve Jobs of ecology, an ecopreneur who is using bold research to shine a light on natures potential to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. Criticism has also been leveled at the project for impeding on land used for pasture. 8 Billion Trees 4.9 stars, 1,841 Reviews of 8 Billion Trees 8 Billion Trees Monthly Subscription Auto renew, 8 Billion Trees Respect Your Mother Shirt (ThriveCart), 8 Billion Trees Pounds of Carbon Offset Monthly, 8 Billion Trees Zaya the Jaguar, 8 Billion Trees Biodegradable Dental Floss, 8 Billion Trees Respect Your Mother Shirt, 8 Billion Trees Climate Change Is Real Shirt, 8 Billion Trees . Needles of Blue Pine tree. If the issue did arise, the fault would lie with that individual business, not a company like Terrapass. Droughts, wildfire, and insect and disease outbreaks are becoming more frequent, and forests are being replaced by grassy shrublands after these disturbances, mostly because its now too hot and dry for new generations of saplings to survive. Please view our privacy policy for more information. The organization began in October 2004, with the central aim of helping people reduce their cars climate impact. Planting 60 Billion Trees in the U.S. | World Resources Institute 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). How would planting 8 billion trees every year for 20 years affect Earth 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. Ethiopia aimed to plant 5 billion seedlings in three months. Key Takeaways. Although a leading justification for tree planting is carbon sequestration, a growing number of ecologists say many projects will not create reliable carbon stores and may actually make global warming worse. I hate that people keep asking me: where are you going to plant these trillion trees? Crowther says. Similar conflicts over land use exist in all countries. Put simply, where will people and nations allow the large-scale planting of trees? In July 2019, the British ecologist co-authored a study estimating that Earth had space for an extra trillion trees on land not used for agriculture or settlement. || 8 Billion School - YouTube The Pakistani government claims to have already planted over a billion trees as part of its ambitious plan, as well as having created around 85,000 jobs. Trees are an integral part of many animals livelihood, supplying food and shelter most importantly. Restor will combine the latest biodiversity metrics with a global map of restoration projects. Planting billions of trees across the world is one of the biggest and cheapest ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists, who have made the. Nature has its own mechanism for planting trees and you do not need to plant and look after them," the former forestry official said. Death 8 APR 1905 - Amsterdam,North Holland . "I have seen the planting of thousands of trees in my own area," she said. All rights reserved. Still, not all tree-planting initiatives are created equal. 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. The government said that the project would cost a little over 125 billion rupees ($750 million, 633 million) but critics claim that other costs are being ignored. Read more. This is certainly a valid concern to consider as youre shopping for carbon credits, especially since the recent reports revealing devastating truths about the carbon marketplaces dark side. 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. In October 2019, the journal Science published four highly critical comments. At the moment a lot of the trees being planted are monocultures of fast-growing commercial species like acacia or eucalyptus. Theres still a question mark, says Beerling. A study finds 1.8 billion trees and shrubs in the Sahara desert. Retrieved July 17, 2021, from: https://www.Terrapass.com/standards-2, 7Terrapass. In May 2020,Crowther's team published an extensive correction, in which they admitted that some of their headline claims were "incorrect" and that the data contained "errors". Its a little shocking, but we dont actually have a good global perspective of where restoration is occurring, says Dr Susan Cook-Patton, a scientist at the Nature Conservancy and a member of Restors scientific advisory panel. 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. These argued that the researchers had overestimated the carbon trees could store by a factor of five. Thomas Crowther understands more than most the danger of simple, optimistic messages about combating the climate crisis. The solution is to stop emitting all greenhouse gases, for instance by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources like solar power. The former A3 London to Portsmouth road at Hindhead, after being restored back to heathland. This, to many, smacked of colonialism: By not excluding conservation areas and traditional rangelands, they say, these maps promote the idea that Africas natural heritage can be turned into industrial tree plantations to offset the rich worlds carbon emissions. Unfortunately, climate change is certainly a polarizing issue. Others point to another solution with a more proven track record and that might be more deserving of global support empowering the people who live in and safeguard forests already. Data on the outcomes of conservation projects, available to academics, will facilitate a better understanding of what does and does not work in restoration ecology, he hopes. First and foremost, 8 Billion Trees is a social enterprise- not a charity. Also, planting trees is not just about stopping climate change. Trees just got a big boost at The World Economic Forum this month, when the forum announced a new initiative aimed at planting 1 trillion trees around the globe within the decade to combat climate change. With the right support we can continue to do so for generations to come, reads a statement from indigenous and community organizations from 42 countries spanning 76 percent of the worlds tropical forest in response to a report from the IPCC. NASA Supercomputing Study Breaks Ground for Tree Mapping, Carbon As Fatal Fungus Takes Its Toll, Can We Save Frog Species on the Brink? Once theres transparency across the whole system, everyone can call you out. Abbas says that in a particular desert area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, one sapling needs a one-off provision of 15 rupees worth of water. The Time magazine owner told everyone he could about the research: chief executives, friends and world leaders, even convincing climate sceptic Donald Trump to back the WEF initiative with a multibillion tree commitment. The 2019 tree paper earned withering criticism from many ecologists. You can find a list of approved VVBs from several authorities like the American Carbon Registry and Verra.6. Why Some May Think Terrapass Isn't Legit - 8 Billion Trees Reforestation might buy us up to a decade of time maybe six or seven years of current emissions, he says. 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. In South Africa, for example, many naturally open habitats, including grasslands and heathlands, have been invaded by introduced trees like eucalyptus and acacia species from Australia and pines from the Northern Hemisphere. Global deforestation rates & statistics by country | GFW. 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. In India, leading environmental groups opposed a project to plant 2 billion trees in the Cauvery river basin supported by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. However, the trees emissions can also lead to warming if they react to form the greenhouse gas methane, or ozone, which is a greenhouse gas at low altitudes. Maintaining existing forests should be a priority, but restoring trees to places where theyve been lost can sometimes be the next best option, he says. When trees are cut down, it is important that the carbon they contain is not released again into the atmosphere (Credit: Getty Images). Terrapass is one of many US carbon offset organizations that have been under increasing scrutiny in recent months. The study also looked at regions that were best able to stop that from happening, and found that indigenous territories had the best success rates. We encourage you to research and examine these records to determine their accuracy. Restor, developed in partnership with Google, will bring all of this research together. Master Comparative Cultural Analysis (Arts and Culture) 2022 - 2024. Tree planting can distract from the greater priorities of protecting existing forests and reducing fossil fuel use, they say, and conserving and restoring natural open ecosystems, like grasslands, can often deliver more benefits than afforestation. Forests are the best nature-based solution to climate change, he says, adding that trees also provide many benefits to people, like improving health and creating [forestry-related] job opportunities.. Restor will show very clearly those that are failing. One of the most widely-publicized is the Atlas of Forest and Landscape Restoration Opportunities published by the World Resources Institute (WRI), which delineates 2 billion hectares of what it terms degraded and deforested areas that it says are suitable for partial or full reforestation. Launched in 2019, the project with support from the United Nations Environment Programme is aiming to plant 10 billion trees by 2023. However, they also have locations or partner with businesses, such as manufacturing plants, overseas. You have to be careful where you do reforestation, says David Beerling of the University of Sheffield in the UK. If a place should naturally only have one tree per hectare, thats the level you should be restoring. They still think forests play a role in solving the climate crisis their skepticism mostly centers around efforts to plant trees in places they werent before, or to plant large swaths of a single species to essentially create tree plantations instead of real forests. After five years, they could cut the trees for timber. 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. 8 Billion Trees was founded with a simple idea: if people can destroy the Earth, they can also help to rebuild it. For Law, it is one of the best estimates published to date. The message, then, is that trees can play a significant role in stopping dangerous climate change provided we plant them in the right places. In 2014 Unger calculated that, by chopping down forests from 1850 to the 2000s and thus preventing them emitting volatiles, we have created a cooling effect that slightly offset the warming from greenhouse gas emissions. (n.d.). He writes about international and African wildlife issues for Yale Environment 360. There was also division over how to reforest: allow humans to plant enormous numbers of saplings or leave ecosystems to regenerate on their own? Researchers can map where projects are taking place and help prevent duplication, says Crowther. The idea is everywhere. Launched in 2019, the project with. Thats the pine-y smell you get when you walk through a forest, says Dominick Spracklen of the University of Leeds in the UK. More about Adam Welz, Never miss a feature! It inspired the World Economic Forums (WEF) One Trillion Trees Initiative, launched last year after Salesforce billionaire Marc Benioff read the paper on the recommendation of Al Gore, the former US vice-president. The location, species planted, and how people are involved can all jeopardize success. Its not nothing, but it doesnt really fundamentally change the story: we still need some pretty massive reductions in our emissions. 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. 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. Reforestation is seen as a way to help cool the climate, sucking excess warming carbon out of the atmosphere. AI analysis of satellite images sees trees and shrubs where human eyes can't. Instead of this costly project, the government should have targeted deforestation with strict administrative measures, the senior government official said. 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. 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. All Rights Reserved, By submitting your email, you agree to our. This led the state to set the average stock too low, causing inflated carbon credit estimations. (2021, June 15). Systematic over-crediting of forest offsets. CarbonPlan. Consumers would be able to interrogate the credentials of their cup of coffee, clothing or a corporate net zero claim simply by looking up a Restor page to see how an agroforestry project or reforestation scheme is managing the land. Scientists have begun their own public relations battle against numbers-driven, large-scale tree planting. And many struggle because they dont have the right information, adds Crowther, who is to co-chair the UNs Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. The skepticism isnt related to anything Terrapass has done particularly, but growing public uncertainty about the carbon marketplace. part one. Headlines around the world declared tree planting to be the best solution to climate change, lead author of the critique Joseph Veldman said in a statement at the time. Instead of that guy from Salesforce saying, Im going to put money into planting a trillion trees, Id like him to go and say, Im going to put my money into helping indigenous people in the Amazon defend their lands, Fleischman says. Conserving, restoring and growing 1 trillion trees by 2030. South Africa has recently faced critical water shortages affecting major cities that have been exacerbated by invasive trees, and the government spends millions of dollars annually on a program called Working for Water to remove them from key watersheds and conservation areas. Replanting trees nearer the poles is not as effective at drawing back carbon as trees planted in the tropics (Credit: Getty Images). The VCM is a voluntary system, meaning that there is little oversight and regulation, since there are no designated ruling bodies agreeing to one set of standards. They say that it will take decades for the already-existing environmental degradation to be reversed. The neural network identified more than 1.8 billion trees - surprising numbers for a region often assumed to support little vegetation, said Meyer and Tucker. Mahmood Nasir believes any plant that is grown outside its natural biome is expensive and environmentally disastrous. The distribution of dryland trees and their density, cover, size, mass and carbon content are not well known at sub-continental to continental scales 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14.This . But another anonymous government official questioned the validity of this claim, asking where the record is of these 85,000 workers. We may need something thats ultra-large-scale industrial in 10 to 20 years.. The overall effect is quite small, says Spracklen, who has studied the effects of aerosols. Although it would take an enormous area of new trees to measurably heat the atmosphere at a global scale, Smart says in some cases the planetary reflectance loss from new trees may outweigh carbon sequestration gains. Carbon leakage. The Dave Matthews Band 2023 Tour has committed to help plant an additional one million trees with The Nature Conservancy's Plant a Billion Trees program, a global forest restoration effort, having fully funded three million trees from 2020 - 2022.With your help and with commitments from the band, The Dreaming Tree Wines and other tour partners, we can help advance this goal in an effort to . The study also warned that the ability of indigenous peoples to protect their lands is under threat. At ETH Zrich, researchers employ machine-learning techniques and satellite imagery to gain understanding of the Earths soils, fungi, carbon cycle and forests. Birth 8 Feb 1855 - Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands. As an added assurance, buyers can visit the. He takes full responsibility for the failures, and, with a team of researchers, has been re-doing the analysis with a different approach. The researchers warn, Rather than improve forest management to store additional carbon dioxide, ecological and statistical flaws in Californias offsets program create incentives to generate credits that do not reflect real climate benefits.. What A Waste: Online Retail's Big Packaging Problem - Forbes Did the government plant tens of thousands of trees in northern areas of the country? The carbon marketplace is one of the most powerful tools we have to mitigate climate change effects. Portfolio audit. However, the states analytical blunder isnt representative of Terrapasss legitimacy or suspected lack thereof. A platform for the trillion trees community. | 1t.org For Nadine Unger of the University of Exeter in the UK, this is a major problem. 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.