Tree Planting Is Booming. Here’s How That Could Help, or Harm, the Planet.

A tree is planted for every shirt purchased. For every bottle of wine. Every time you use a credit card. Companies and countries plant trees to meet pledges.

Businesses and consumers are joining nonprofit groups and governments in planting trees as the climate crisis deepens. Billions of trees were planted around the world last year. These efforts can provide livelihoods, absorb and lock away carbon dioxide, and improve the health of the environment.

The projects can make the problems they were meant to solve worse. The wrong place to plant trees can make the environment less resilient.

The global crisis of biodiversity loss is becoming more and more urgent. The rates of extinction are increasing. Many species are at risk of disappearing within decades. The food and water supplies that humans rely on are at risk because of the collapse of the ecosystems.

Companies and countries are increasingly investing in tree planting that carpets large areas with commercial, nonnative species in the name of fighting climate change. These trees provide little support to the webs of life that once thrived in those areas.

Paul Smith, who runs the umbrella group that works to prevent plant extinctions, said that if people want to plant trees, let them.

One should plant the right tree for the right reason.

According to interviews with a range of players, people often disagree on what "right" means. For some, big tree farms are used for timber and carbon storage. For others, it is giving fruit trees to small-scale farmers. It allows native species to regenerate.

It can be difficult to reconcile competing interests when trying to address a range of needs.

Forrest Fleischman is a professor of environmental policy at the University of Minnesota.

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There isn't enough land to tackle climate change with trees alone, but cutting fossil fuels can be an important natural solution. They absorb carbon dioxide through their leaves and leave it in their trunks and branches. forests are called carbon sinks because of their ability to collect CO2

The French oil and gas giant, TotalEnergies, is planning to plant trees on 40,000-hectares in the Republic of Congo. The project would sequester more than 10 million tons of carbon dioxide over the course of 20 years, according to the company.

Nicolas Terraz, who was Total's senior vice president for Africa, exploration and production at the time, said in a company news release that Total was committing to the development of natural carbon sinks in Africa.

To achieve net zero, companies must remove carbon from the air. TotalEnergies is one of many who are turning to trees for help. A large area will be covered by an Australian acacia species intended for logging.

The company said that the project would create jobs and broaden the ecology by allowing local species to grow.

Scientists warn that the plan may be an example of one of the worst kinds of forestation efforts: planting trees where they wouldn't naturally occur. In some cases, trees absorb heat that would have been reflected in the snow in other parts of the world, threatening water supplies and even increasing temperatures.

Bethanie Walder is the executive director of the Society for Ecological Restoration.

Paula Nieto Quintano, an environmental scientist who has focused on the region, says that the BatékéPlateau is one of the least studied in Africa.

The people who study forest restoration emphasize that trees are not a cure-all.

Robin Chazdon, a professor of tropical forest restoration at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, fears that corporations and governments are seeing this as an easy way out.

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The benefits of trees vary depending on where they are planted.

It is a lucrative lumber product because it grows fast and straight. Koalas evolved to tolerate a potent poison that was contained in its leaves, which was native to Australia and a few islands to the north. In Africa and South America, where the trees are grown for timber, fuel and carbon storage, they provide less value to wildlife. They are blamed for the decline in water and the increase in fires.

Commercial species have a role to play in forest restoration. People need timber, a renewable product with a lower carbon footprint than concrete or steel. Paper and fuel are needed for cooking.

Fast-growing species can help preserve native forests. By strategically adding native species, tree farms can help link disconnected habitats.

Michael Becker is the head of communications for 1t.org, a group created by the World Economic Forum to push for the growth of one trillion trees.

Helping biodiversity doesn't offer the financial return of carbon storage or timber markets.

Many governments give broad latitude when it comes to setting standards for reforestation efforts.

In Wales, one of the most deforested countries in Europe, the government is offering incentives for tree planting. 25 percent native species are needed to qualify for government subsidies. There are rows of trees on land that was once a forest and savanna. The company called Reforesta PerFA; is planting trees on degraded land, but it's using cloned trees intended for export.

The general manager of Reforesta PerFA; said investors prefer them because they bring better prices.

The University College London and the University of Edinburgh found that 45 percent of the national commitments involved planting vast monocultures of trees as profitable enterprises.

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When businesses promise to plant a tree for every purchase of a product, they typically do so via nonprofit groups that work with communities around the world. Fruit and nut trees may be provided by the support. Even these projects can affect the environment.

There are nearly 60,000 tree species on the planet. A third of them are threatened with extinction. According to tree planting groups and scientists, only a tiny fraction of species are widely planted.

They are planting the same species all over the world, according to an assistant professor at North Carolina State University. She said that these efforts could reduce the richness of the forests.

Local communities often ask for nonnative species to be planted by nonprofit tree planting groups. The World Resources Institute's Susan Chomba said that deeper engagement can yield a different story. She said that when farmers are given the chance to think about what they want to accomplish on their land, they will remember that when they had more trees, they also had streams. They want the water back.

What kind of tree species are suitable for returning water into the environment?

Local seed banks tend to be dominated by commercial species, which is a major hurdle. Some groups pay people to collect seeds from nearby forests.

Another solution is to let the forests come back on their own. Natural regeneration can be cheaper and more effective if the area is only lightly degraded. Carbon sequestration and biodiversity are built in when trees are allowed to return after being fencing off.

Nature knows a lot more than we do.