What’s the problem?
There’s growing awareness that forests are the single most effective way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
But despite the rising popularity of forest restoration as one way of tackling the climate crisis, there are serious concerns about how some schemes are executed.
With no coherent, agreed definition, forest restoration is often conflated with tree-planting initiatives, including creating large-scale monocultural plantations. These do little to restore biodiversity or help the climate. What’s more, so-called “restoration” projects frequently side-line local communities, are used to justify land grabs and result in human rights violations.
