Why planting trees isn’t always the answer to climate change

By: Christina Pelliccio

Can planting trees actually be doing more harm than good? This summer, Ethiopia made it a goal of theirs to plant millions of more trees to help tackle the climate crisis. Prime minister Abiy Ahmed joined people from all over the country on July 29 to plant 353 million trees in 12 hours, surpassing their goal of 200 million and breaking the Guinness World Record. This goal was part of Ethiopia’s “Green Legacy” initiative, which aims to dampen the severe effects of climate change felt by Ethiopia. Planting trees has been a known solution to climate change since they regulate the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, so it seemed like this initiative would be incredibly beneficial for the country. 

However, what Ethiopia, as well as many others throughout the world, forgot to consider was the type of trees they were planting. In order for this tree-planting to be beneficial, trees should only be planted that are a good fit for the environment. The reason this is a huge concern is that many non-native tree species have been introduced in the past, such as the eucalyptus, which caused increased soil acidity and hindered nearby plant growth. Although Ethiopia had the intention of taking action on climate change, they may have been doing more harm than good by encouraging people to plant as many trees as possible to meet their goal without effectively informing the public on what type of trees should be planted. 

Planting trees in grassy ecosystems like those in Ethiopia have been known to cause competition between the species and ultimately lead to the decline of many plant and animal species. Research shows that the introduction of trees can actually cause a loss of biodiversity, reduce water supply, and alter the ability of certain ecosystems to function. It is vital to note that trees are not all equal. Some trees are much better at restoring the environment because they made up the original environment, instead of being imported from somewhere else. While planting trees is great, planting non-native species can actually prevent the native species, that are much more important for the environment, from growing.

So, while planting trees is a great way to reverse the effects of climate change and control our carbon levels, we must make sure to be wise about what types of trees we are planting. If governments are going to incentivize and promote tree-planting, it is important that they emphasize educating the public about what species to plant. 

So, should we continue planting trees? The answer is definitely yes. Considering only a small percentage of forests where native trees grow are left on this planet, and our need to regulate the amounts of carbon in the atmosphere is increasing exponentially, we should definitely still be planting trees. At the rate at which we are deforesting our planet, it is necessary. But it is important that we make sure that our efforts to help the environment are not actually hurting it.