Let's suppose you want to work for a certain company. You do some research on their website in to their green credentials and are happy to find out that they are financing the planting of trees in an area where previously a large forest was removed. Sounds great on the face of it, but is it though?

Profit Has Been Placed Before Thought Or Care.

What if the people conducting the tree planting are doing so on an industrial scale. They offer green services to large companies, organisations and even governments. The numbers can look impressive on a website, where companies or politicians brag about how nice they are for the world. Dig a little deeper and you might find that profit has been placed before thought or care. And for the company buying their green credentials, it's all only about marketing and box ticking so they can sell more stuff.

To get the maximum return for their land, companies will plant trees as close to each other as possible. This will often involve one type of tree that may not be natural to that area. While this will remove some carbon from the atmosphere, it is hardly a return to the multi species biodiverse forest that originated in the area. One plant type results in fewer animal species.

One Plant Type Results In Fewer Animal Species.

Even worse is where trees are planted in an area that naturally never had trees at any time. Whatever natural species of plants and animals currently live in that area will be pushed out as the invading trees grow.

Best practice is to replace a damaged forest with all the local species and with natural average spacing. Involving local people is a must.

About The Author
Jane Duncan
Chewells Contributor

Jane is passionate about the environment, she is our main contributor for the renewable industry blogs. She... »

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Replies

• Aba Selassie (June 9, 2024)
  Everything becomes a business if there is money in it. This article depicts a far from perfect situation, but it may well be helpful for the global environment if companies are paying to have large numbers of trees planted. Perhaps it is a step in the right direction. One that may need fixing again in the future, one that may be detrimental on a local level.
• Marx (June 9, 2024)
  Business as usual will we ever learn?
• Lacey (June 5, 2024)
  best practice is to not cut down the natural forest in the first place
• Hogan (June 2, 2024)
  money talks

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