Updated: Jun 16, 2023
Studies have long shown that planting trees has many benefits. Not only does it help alleviate climate change and biodiversity loss, but planting trees also brings jobs to poor areas and boosts the local economy by employing more workers. Now, after decades of little funding and little interest, tree planting companies are seeing a rise in support as more and more seeds of interest are sowed in people’s hearts.
One study has shown that there are still 0.9 billion hectares of Earth that can support forests. If that area was filled with trees that were grown to maturity, they could store almost one hundred gigatons of carbon. This would account for one-fifth of the carbon that humans have released into the atmosphere.
One of the two hundred organizations working to plant more trees is Eden Reforestation Projects. The company has grown a lot over the last year, currently employing more than 15,000 employees. The project has planted almost a billion trees, although information about which trees survive and which trees don’t is unclear.
Eden Reforestation Projects has recently come to Engenho, a small village of 800 in northern Goiás State. While Goiás is one of the most protected areas in Brazil, many areas in Goiás would benefit from having more trees. Damião Santos is the leader of a tree-planting squad of six outside Engenho, and he is paid by Eden to plant around 10,000 trees every week. Eden has hired him and his companions not only to alleviate the poverty there and to help save the planet. Damião says that it changed the entire trajectory of his life.
The population of Engenho has multiplied by 8 in the past 20 years, straining the forests villagers rely on for many aspects of life like building supplies and fuel. That’s one of the reasons Santos was surprised by the offer, saying that “it seemed like a dream” when Eden arrived and offered to pay villagers to plant trees.
However, many scientists are uneasy about the trend. While everyone agrees that planting trees is positive for the environment, some are worried because a significant amount scientists say that planting trees isn’t very effective and can’t store enough carbon for the planet to stop warming.
Studies have long shown that planting trees has many benefits. Not only does it help alleviate climate change and biodiversity loss, but planting trees also brings jobs to poor areas and boosts the local economy by employing more workers. Now, after decades of little funding and little interest, tree planting companies are seeing a rise in support as more and more seeds of interest are sowed in people’s hearts.
One study has shown that there are still 0.9 billion hectares of Earth that can support forests. If that area was filled with trees that were grown to maturity, they could store almost one hundred gigatons of carbon. This would account for one-fifth of the carbon that humans have released into the atmosphere.
One of the two hundred organizations working to plant more trees is Eden Reforestation Projects. The company has grown a lot over the last year, currently employing more than 15,000 employees. The project has planted almost a billion trees, although information about which trees survive and which trees don’t is unclear.
Eden Reforestation Projects has recently come to Engenho, a small village of 800 in northern Goiás State. While Goiás is one of the most protected areas in Brazil, many areas in Goiás would benefit from having more trees. Damião Santos is the leader of a tree-planting squad of six outside Engenho, and he is paid by Eden to plant around 10,000 trees every week. Eden has hired him and his companions not only to alleviate the poverty there and to help save the planet. Damião says that it changed the entire trajectory of his life.
The population of Engenho has multiplied by 8 in the past 20 years, straining the forests villagers rely on for many aspects of life like building supplies and fuel. That’s one of the reasons Santos was surprised by the offer, saying that “it seemed like a dream” when Eden arrived and offered to pay villagers to plant trees.
However, many scientists are uneasy about the trend. While everyone agrees that planting trees is positive for the environment, some are worried because a significant amount scientists say that planting trees isn’t very effective and can’t store enough carbon for the planet to stop warming.
