Tree planting is becoming an important part of climate change mitigation strategies. However, a team of international scientists point out that the wrong trees in the wrong places can do more harm than good. They propose “10 golden rules” to guide tree planting. These include protecting existing forests first, involving local communities at all stages, picking the right sites to replant, using appropriate seed stocks and a diversity of plants, supporting natural regeneration, and using plants to develop new sustainable income streams (such as tourism or carbon credits).
Journal/conference: Global Change Biology
Link to research (DOI): 10.1111/gcb.15498
Organisation/s: Curtin University, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK
Funder: Funding from Sky Zero; Chiang Mai University, Thailand; the Swedish Research Council (grant # 2019‐05191), the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (grant # FFL15‐0196); the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, grant #2018/18416‐2), and the European Union to the Regreening Africa programme. The funders had no influence on the research reported here.