Arbor Day: Why trees need to be grown and tracked, not just planted

Apr 30, 2021

Tree planting alone is not enough to save the planet. Image: Unsplash/Matt Artz

Karen D. Holl

Professor of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz

Pedro H. S. Brancalion

Member, Science Panel for the Amazon

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Forests is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Forests

Have you read?

a diagram showing the positive and negative effects of planting trees

Planting trees can have both positive and negative effects, depending on how projects are planned and managed and where they are done. Image: Creative Commons/Vanessa Sontag, modified from Holl and Brancalion 2020

image of a monoculture of exotic eucalyptus trees (background) planted into a native grassland within the Brazilian Cerrado, a global hot spot for conservation priorities

Transforming an open ecosystem into a shaded monoculture plantation harms native plant and animal species and reduces the water supply for local people and aquatic creatures. Image: Creative Commons/Robin Chazdon

image of a forest in southwestern Virginia which was logged in the 1800s and has since regrown naturally

This forest in southwestern Virginia was logged in the 1800s and has since regrown naturally, like most forests in the eastern United States. Image: Creative Commons/Leighton Reid

image of a farmer and representatives from an international NGO and a restoration company. discussing where to plant native trees on a cattle ranch in the Brazilian Amazon.

A farmer and representatives from an international NGO and a restoration company. discuss where to plant native trees on a cattle ranch in the Brazilian Amazon. Image: Creative Commons/Pedro Brancalion

Discover

What’s the World Economic Forum doing about deforestation?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.