In January, the World Economic Forum, backed by US president Donald Trump, announced the to plant or protect a trillion trees by 2030, bolstering the estimated 3 trillion that already exist. The scheme joins existing reforestation efforts such as the 鈥淭rillion Trees鈥� project launched by conservation groups in 2017.
One Trillion Trees didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment on progress, but a says that 855 million trees have been pledged by US-based authorities and other bodies. It is unclear how many of those have been planted.
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Separately, the National Forest Foundation, a US non-profit organisation, it had planted 5 million of 7.8 million seedlings it hoped to put in the ground this year, hampered slightly by the pandemic.
In the UK, Guy Shrubsole at Friends of the Earth says there has been little sign that mass tree-planting pledged during the 2019 general election campaign there has turned into action. show that between March 2019 and March 2020, 134.6 square kilometres of new woodland were planted, down 1 per cent on the previous year. Most was in Scotland, with only 23.3 sq km in England, implying a government target for England of 300 sq km by 2025 will be missed without a major ramp-up.
