Nairobi: Environmentalist Lucy Kagendo of the non-governmental organization Green Dimensions Network planted 50 seedlings in Kenya last year as part of a national campaign to plant 15 billion trees by 2032.

Today most of these trees are dead.

The idea behind such tree-planting initiatives is simple. Trees remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Through photosynthesis, their leaves absorb water and planet-warming carbon dioxide, convert them into food, and release oxygen as a byproduct.

However, Kagendo’s tree planting project is not the only one with disappointing results. Just consider the restoration efforts in northern India over the last 50 years.

According to a study by the environmental magazine Nature Sustainability, “decades of expensive tree planting programs in the region have proven ineffective” because they neither “increased tree canopy cover” nor helped mitigate climate change.

The ambitious African Great Green Wall project was launched in 2007 with the aim of replanting 100 million hectares of devastated land in the Sahel with vegetation and trees. According to the latest UN figures, only a fifth of this area has been planted so far. Progress has stalled due to a lack of funding, and some trees have died because they did not receive enough water or care.

What is the problem with tree planting campaigns?
Many tree planting campaigns fail because the wrong trees are planted in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In Turkey, for example, the government had set a goal of planting 11 million trees across the country in 2019. But Sükrü Durmus, head of the Turkish Agricultural and Forestry Union, told DW that they found that “about 98 percent of the trees planted had died in less than three months.” He attributed the failure to “wrong planting time, low rainfall and the selection of the wrong tree species.”

According to Seyifunmi Adebote, an environmental management researcher from Nigeria, most campaigns fail because people focus too much on planting trees rather than on “proper planning for implementation.”

“In most cases, tree planting campaigns are motivated by either local or global political motivations to tick certain boxes,” Adebote told DW.

For Yusuf Idris Amoke, a government climate change official in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, “many government tree campaigns have unrealistic ambitions.” He believes previous campaigns have been unsuccessful because they “were launched to project a positive public image of the government’s environmental friendliness.”

Trees generally take about 20 to 30 years to mature, meaning it can be a while before they have a big impact on the climate, so it’s important to track the trees and collect data after they’re planted, which often doesn’t happen.

It is also important to select “suitable native species” and to provide long-term care for the trees.

“Successful campaigns are those that not only plant trees but also ensure their survival through care and monitoring,” Elsie Gabriel, founder of India’s Young Environmentalists Programme Trust, told DW.

The Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project in China, for example, was successful because the tree species used were native, drought-resistant and able to thrive in local climate and soil conditions.

The project successfully planted 270,000 acres of trees and shrubs – more than three times the land area of ​​New York City.
Who takes care of the trees after they are planted?

After Kagendo of the Green Dimensions Network planted her trees in Kenya as part of the government campaign, she began to wonder who would take care of the trees once they were in the ground.

“The president went out and planted trees, but will he go out and water them afterwards?” asked Kagendo. She herself went to a national park far from where she lives to help during the election campaign. Now, Kagendo says, she will “plant trees near me so I can take care of them.”

Local communities can help keep trees alive and should be involved in projects.

“Tree plantations in India should reach out to local indigenous communities,” said Gabriel. “Schools and colleges should be provided with these opportunities. Women should be given jobs in horticulture and tree plantations to bridge the gender gap.”

Some successful local tree planting efforts have used this approach. The US Green Seattle Partnership project involved young volunteers from schools and communities and has so far contributed over one million hours of volunteer work.

And sometimes less is more.

“It is better to grow fewer trees and healthier trees than to plant many that may all die,” Kagendo said.