Downloadable Teacher Resources

Forest restoration and reforestation are well-known climate solutions because of trees’ ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere and store it in their biomass.

This carbon absorption ability is entirely natural, and far exceeds the efficiency of any man-made carbon removal tech that currently exists.

As well as carbon sequestration though, planting trees is a wonderful thing to do for a number of other reasons:

• Trees provide habitat, shade, shelter, and food for local wildlife. Planting trees therefore supports biodiversity and helps to prevent species loss.
• Trees can provide products that local community members can sell – like fruits and nuts – without harming the trees themselves.
• Degraded soil increases the risk of natural hazards like landslides, and the roots of trees help to stabilise the soil and minimise this risk for local communities.
• Trees can help to purify air and water sources, providing better health outcomes for local communities.
• Coastal tree species like mangroves provide excellent natural barriers which protect the shoreline from storms.
• Trees make us feel better: research suggests they have a positive impact on our mental health.

Trees will be planted in Madagascar, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Kenya and Uganda. Ecologi work with partners such as Eden Reforestation Projects, who have an ‘employ to plant’ methodology which ensures reforestation projects become a source of stable employment for communities and contribute towards socio-economic growth.

We scrutinise our reforestation partners carefully based on a number of important criteria including ecological credentials, experience, monitoring and reporting capabilities, reputation and labour practices.

Ecologi’s partners are required to provide comprehensive reports to us on a regular basis, detailing planting numbers and descriptive updates, as well as GPS-tagged images. We monitor these internally, and we share the best photos with you on our social channels when they come in. These partners are also routinely audited by third parties to verify the figures they give.

A core part of our partnerships with our reforestation partners is that they are responsible not just for putting a tree in the ground, but ensuring that it has the best chance to survive and thrive once it’s there. Generally speaking, on our mass reforestation sites, our partners are able to achieve a survival rate of around 80-85%.

It’s important to note that no organisation can guarantee with 100% certainty that a forest is permanently impervious to all risks – but there are lots of steps we can take to minimise these risks with the forestry projects we support. From Ecologi’s side, this folds into our due diligence processes when we select reforestation partners to work with, and also the types of projects we support. One of the great reasons for supporting mangroves is because they are a coastal species, meaning the risk of being destroyed by wildfires is minimised.

Check out Ecologi’s FAQs to find out more about our responsible reforestation projects.