Malawi amends forestry law to action against illegal charcoal trade
Until recently, crimes like illegal tree cutting for the production of charcoal often went unnoticed by the law.
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 seed-firing drones are planting 40,000 trees every day to fight deforestation
In comparison to traditional methodologies, they are not only 25 times faster, but 80 per cent cheaper, according to developer AirSeed Technologies.
Formerly warring factions in Burundi have now planted over 150 million trees together since 2018
In 2018, Burundi launched a vast national reforestation program to boost the country’s dwindling forest cover, which will run until 2025.
Gabon announces immediate end to the logging of the Massaha ancestral forest
This is a precedent-setting case in the country’s management of forests, representing the first time an area will be declared protected at the request of the resident community.
Scotland’s forests are the largest they have been for 900 years
Scotland’s reforestation story just keeps growing: tree cover has tripled over the past century, climbing from under 6 percent of the country’s land to roughly 18 percent today. That’s close to forest levels not seen since medieval times. Behind the numbers are decades of work by government agencies, private landowners, and rewilding groups like Trees for Life, who’ve been steadily replacing fast-growing conifer plantations with native species like Scots pine, birch, and oak. Public enthusiasm is striking too — around 80 percent of Scots backed Highland reforestation in a 2021 survey. Scotland’s recovery is a hopeful reminder that landscapes stripped bare over centuries can begin healing within a single lifetime, when communities decide they want them back.
Opium production down as one thousand families in Mexico’s Golden Triangle turn to agroforestry
The project has helped lift the Tamazula municipality, where the four communities are located, off the state’s poverty list, raise their income above the minimum wage and contain narcotrafficking.
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. pledges to plant 6 million trees across the U.S., Brazil, India, and Indonesia
Through a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and Teen, West Elm, and others will plant one tree for every piece of indoor wood furniture sold.
Indigenous communities in Oaxaca restore more than 20,000 hectares of land depleted by overgrazing
Many sites have been transformed into burgeoning forests. The communities now have more options for forest-based livelihood, such as agroforestry or even selling carbon credits.
Scotland to plan millions of trees next to rivers in bid to protect wild salmon
Fisheries scientists have found rivers and burns in the Highlands and uplands are already too warm in summer for wild Atlantic salmon as they head upstream to spawn, increasing the threat to the species’ survival.
China announces planting of Belgium-sized forests and expanded national parks
14,000 square-miles of new forest will go up every year, particularly in drought-prone regions of the North and West.