When Tree Planting Goes Wrong

Special thanks to the Society for Ecological Restoration and its global partners for their support during this production; and to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which is part of the United Nations Environment Programme. Thanks to Kingsley Dixon and the team at Curtin University and the Centres for Mining Restoration and Healing Country for supporting and sponsoring this video. Trees are a super-efficient way to sequester carbon, but since planting the wrong trees in the wrong place can do more harm than good, we need to go about tree planting more carefully. LEARN MORE ************** To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords: - Afforestation: the process of introducing trees and tree seedlings to an area that has previously not been forested. - Carbon sequestration: a process by which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and held in solid or liquid form. - Ecological restoration: the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. - Moor: wet, upland habitats characterized by low-growing shrubs, grasses, bog-mosses, and damp, peaty soils. SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH ************************** If you like what we do, you can help us!: - Become our patron: - Share this video with your friends and family - Leave us a comment (we read them!) CREDITS ********* Kate Yoshida | Script Writer, Narrator and Director David Goldenberg | Director Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Nathaniel Schroeder | Music MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC OUR STAFF ************ Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida OUR LINKS ************ Merch | MinuteEarth Explains Book | Youtube | TikTok | @minuteearth Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Apple Podcasts| REFERENCES ************** Bond WJ et al. 2019. The trouble with trees: Afforestation plans for Africa. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 34(11): 963-965. Buscardo E et al. 2008. The early effects of afforestation on biodiversity of grasslands in Ireland. Biodiversity and Conservation 17: 1057-1072. Dass, P., et al. 2018. Grasslands may be more reliable carbon sinks than forests in California. Environmental Research Letters 13: 074027. Di Sacco A, et al. 2021. Ten golden rules for reforestation to optimize carbon sequestration, biodiversity recovery, and livelihood benefits. Global Change Biology 27(7): 1328-1348. Ferriera J et al. 2018. Carbon-focused conservation may fail to protect the biodiverse tropical forests. Nature Climate Change 8: 744-749. Friggens NL et al. 2020. Tree planting on organic soils does not result in net carbon sequestration on decadal time scales. Global Change Biology 26(9): 5178-5188. Lewis SL et al. 2019. Comment: Restoring natural forests is the best way to remove atmospheric carbon. Nature 568: 25-28. Hua F. 2022. The biodiversity and ecosystem service contributions and trade-offs of forest restoration approaches. Science 376 (6595): 839-844. IPCC. 2002. Climate change and biodiversity. IPCC Technical Paper V. Jackson RB et al. 2005. Trading water for carbon with biological carbon sequestration. Science 310(5766):1944-1947. Temperton VM et al. 2019. Step back from the forest and step up to the Bonn Challenge: how a broad ecological perspective can promote successful landscape restoration. Restoration Ecology 27(4): 705-719. Terrer, C., et al. 2021. A trade-off between plant and soil carbon storage under elevated CO2. Nature 591: 599-603.