Trees & reforestation

Forests absorb carbon, shelter wildlife, and anchor watersheds — yet billions of trees have been lost to logging and land conversion. This archive tracks the science, policy, and community efforts driving reforestation forward, from Indigenous-led land restoration to large-scale planting programs showing measurable results.

New York City park, for article on urban forest plan

New York City’s first urban forest plan targets its hottest, least-shaded blocks

By / / Good News For Humankind

New York City’s first Urban Forest Plan aims to grow tree canopy from 23.4% to 30% of the city’s surface by 2040, with a focus on neighborhoods that have been left in the sun for too long. Right now, environmental justice communities sit under about 19% canopy cover, while wealthier areas enjoy 26% — a gap you can feel on a hot summer afternoon. The plan protects existing trees, expands planting on streets and private land, and trains residents, including NYCHA tenants, to care for the urban forest. It’s a hopeful reminder that shade, cooler air, and cleaner streets are infrastructure every neighborhood deserves.

Brazil forests and mountains, for article on Atlantic Forest deforestation

Atlantic Forest deforestation in Brazil drops to lowest level since 1985

By / / Good News For Humankind

Deforestation in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest dropped to just 8,658 hectares in 2025 — the lowest level since satellite monitoring began four decades ago, and the first time annual losses have fallen below 10,000 hectares. That’s a 40% drop from the year before, and a world away from the Bolsonaro years, when more than 20,000 hectares were cleared annually. Conservationists credit a steady mix of enforcement, civil society pressure, and renewed federal commitment under Lula, and they believe zero deforestation could be within reach in just three years. In a biome where 80% of Brazilians live and every fragment matters for biodiversity, this milestone is a quiet but powerful reminder: forest loss isn’t inevitable, and a different path is genuinely possible.

An Amur tiger walking through a snowy forest for an article about tiger reintroduction Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan plants 37,000 trees to prepare for the return of wild tigers

By / / Good News For Humankind

Tiger reintroduction in Kazakhstan marks a landmark moment for global conservation. The country has planted 37,000 trees in the Ili River delta to restore tugai forest habitat, paving the way for Amur tigers to eventually replace the extinct Caspian tiger in Central Asia. The two subspecies are genetically near-identical, making this scientifically credible rather than speculative. With over a million hectares of protected land and growing prey populations, Kazakhstan offers rare conditions for success. It is a decades-long effort, but one that proves extinction does not always have to be the final word.

Aerial view of dense Amazon rainforest canopy and winding river for an article about Amazon rainforest protection in Bolivia — 13 words

Bolivia protects over 2.4 million acres of Amazonian rainforest in Indigenous-led conservation win

By / / Good News For Humankind

Bolivia’s Amazon rainforest protection just reached a landmark milestone, with more than 2.4 million acres of Amazonian lowland forest placed under formal Indigenous-led stewardship. The newly protected territory, larger than Connecticut, shields critical habitat for jaguars, giant river otters, and thousands of plant species from logging, agribusiness, and extractive industries. What makes this action particularly significant is that Indigenous communities served as rights-holders and decision-makers throughout the process, not passive beneficiaries of outside policy. Research consistently shows that Indigenous-managed lands retain forest cover and biodiversity at higher rates than conventionally governed areas.

Aerial view of dense tropical forest canopy in Guatemala's Petén region for an article about Maya Forest rewilding — 13 words.

Guatemala closes oil fields in the Maya Forest to begin historic rewilding

By / / Good News For Humankind

Maya Forest rewilding is underway in Guatemala after the government shut down oil extraction inside the Maya Biosphere Reserve and began ecological restoration of the affected land. The reserve spans 2.1 million hectares at the heart of the Selva Maya, the second-largest continuous tropical forest in the Americas. The decision ends decades of industrial pressure on habitat shared by jaguars, scarlet macaws, and hundreds of other species, and responds to longstanding calls from Maya Q’eqchi’ and Itza’ communities. It also advances Guatemala’s commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Aerial view of dense green tropical forest canopy for an article about Ghana forest reserves mining repeal

Ghana repeals legislation that opened forest reserves to mining

By / / Good News For Humankind

Ghana’s parliament has voted to repeal a law that allowed surface mining inside the country’s protected forest reserves, marking a significant win for environmental protection in West Africa. The legislation had accelerated deforestation across Ghana’s ecologically critical forest zones, contaminating water sources and destroying farmland relied upon by Indigenous and rural communities. Ghana’s forest reserves shelter hundreds of species found nowhere else on Earth while anchoring watersheds that millions depend on. The repeal restores full legal protections to these areas and gives enforcement agencies clearer authority to act. It represents a rare moment of legislative course correction with potential to inspire similar reform across the region.

Dense Amazon rainforest canopy seen from above for an article about Bolivia's first Indigenous protected area

Bolivia’s first Indigenous protected area gives three Amazon peoples legal authority over their forests

By / / Good News For Humankind

Indigenous protected area victory: Three Indigenous peoples in the Bolivian Amazon have won legal management authority over Loma Santa, officially recognized as Bolivia’s first Indigenous protected area in the Amazon. The Moxeño Ignaciano, Yuracaré, and Tsimane communities spent decades defending their ancestral lands against illegal loggers, ranchers, and land grabbers. The designation matters because research consistently shows Indigenous-managed territories experience lower deforestation rates than other protected areas. This precedent demonstrates that when communities hold legal authority over lands they have stewarded for millennia, both justice and conservation win.

Dense green Congo Basin rainforest canopy from above for an article about Congo Basin forest payments

Congo Basin communities get direct cash for keeping forests standing

By / / Good News For Humankind

Congo Basin forest payments are now reaching farming families directly, with a new Payments for Environmental Services program routing funds via mobile phone to communities who protect their surrounding forests. Administered through the Central African Forest Initiative with over 00 million committed, the program covers the DRC, Republic of Congo, and Gabon. What makes this significant is who receives the money: individual farmers, not governments or NGOs. By making standing forests financially competitive with logging or clearing land, the program rewrites conservation economics at the community level, offering a potential template for high-forest regions worldwide.

Aerial view of dense green forest canopy in China for an article about China reforestation

China has planted more than 170 million acres of new forest since 1990

By / / Good News For Humankind

China reforestation has reached a scale never seen before in human history, with more than 170 million acres of new tree cover added since 1990 — an area roughly the size of Texas and California combined. Driven by government programs like Grain for Green, which paid tens of millions of rural farmers to convert degraded cropland back to forest, the effort has transformed eroded hillsides into maturing woodland across the country. China’s forests now absorb an estimated 800 million tonnes of CO2 per year while also improving water quality, reducing flooding, and expanding habitat for endangered species. The achievement proves that large-scale ecological recovery is possible within a single human generation.

Hands pressing a seedling into dark soil for an article about tree planting Ethiopia

Ethiopia mobilizes millions to plant 700 million trees in a single day

By / / Good News For Humankind

Ethiopia’s Green Legacy Initiative reached a historic milestone on July 31, 2025, when millions of citizens planted 700 million seedlings in a single day as part of the country’s sweeping reforestation campaign. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed joined schoolchildren and civil servants nationwide, reflecting the program’s emphasis on genuine civic participation over top-down mandates. Launched in 2019 with a target of 50 billion trees by 2026, the initiative addresses decades of devastating deforestation that has eroded soils and threatened food security for millions. Questions about seedling survival rates and ecological oversight remain, but Ethiopia’s effort stands as one of the most ambitious nature-based climate solutions attempted anywhere on Earth.