Something we have been increasingly talking about, is the importance of moving away from the concept of numbers of trees planted, and start concentrating on how areas can be protected so as to allow for trees to regenerate naturally.
Over the past couple of years, we have noticed that there are a growing number of organisations planting trees. We have also repeatedly been asked how many trees we have planted and/or will be planting. The onus being on magic number of trees planted, and being praised for the effort.
But little is done to check that these same trees survive or what the survival rate is for those trees, and how long they can be protected for.
We have decided that the importance is not in how many trees we are planting (we are not actually planting that many, relatively speaking), but we do protect over 300 hectares of natural regrowth, and 500 hectares of pine, representing over 500,000 trees potentially. All those that are naturally regenerated are stronger than planted trees, meaning that their survival rates is higher.
And finally, tree planting exercises should NEVER justify the cutting down old growth natural forest or woodlands.
Comments