Back in the 80's my grandfather planted around 100 to 120 tress in my hometown, it was a small village back than. People knew each other. Now we have a population of around 15000. My grandpa is no more. He passed on 2007. But he's trees are all standing. Now whenever I go to my village, someone usually pinpoint a tree and say it was planted by grandfather. Imagine how proud i am of my grandpa... Well, i am married and in my thirties .. and I want my grandchildrens to feel the same and so I am engaged in reforestation in my free time... You should too..

I have personally planted over 250 plants fifteen years ago now the area looks totally different. It has become a real forest. This is our planet we don't have to wait for government to save our planet

Using drones for seeding is a good strategy, but I worry about dropping a lot of bare seeds on the land, those seeds are likely to be eaten. Using a mix of clay and compost to build a pellet around the seeds helps give the seed a little fertility and protection while it waits for the rain to sprout.

Just to give a real-life example of how important reforestation is. Riding my motorcycle this morning from green Singapore and cross into concrete Johor, Malaysia. In Singapore, the air is chill, crispy and fresh because of the many trees planted in Singapore. After crossing the causeway into Johor, Malaysia you can immediately feel the temperature change. Plant trees, stop deforestation.

I live next to a national park in central America. The temperature is much cooler than in the area where no trees are. Trees are part of our existence.

I managed to get over 60 trees planted in my inner city neighborhood about 15 years ago. Many cities are heat islands and often get much less rainfall than cooler surrounding areas. Also, covering the soil with plants and/or their canopies creates the right conditions for complete water cycling.

It’s also about making the soil alive again. If you have a backyard, and never planted at least 1 tree, that is sad. You have to take action, don’t depend on others. Do your part.

I was born in small village locate in foot of mountain Welirang in East Java Indonesia. Wonderful dark green of forest was view of my home in early 80, but now most of dark green change into light green. The trees got burn in fire almost in every dry season, now replace by grass and cause river getting smaller and smaller each year. My biggest dream to see dark green view back before I died. Start plating 1000 trees this year, wish my dream come true.

Norway also planted Sitka spruce decades ago. They are now being removed. They grow too fast in a way, and the timber quality is quite low, and they are not native to Norway. The biodiversity in these "plantations" are low.

If everyone planted one tree, the world would easily have over 7 billion new trees. It's incredible the change we are capable of if we only knew how much power we had.

Spruce removes 4 ton of co2 whilst a Beach is 7 ton. But a spruce grows 3 x faster than a beach .....so for every beach tree, 3 spruce can grow ....3 x 4 = 12 tons.

I find these things confusing, when in the same time period a vast number of fully- grown, established trees, with large numbers of species living in them, will be cut down in rain forests around the world. In places where trees would grow well if we allowed them to, like all the hilly ground in the UK, they don't need planting, they plant themselves, but because we have huge numbers of sheep and deer, none of them survive beyond a short time. We need to address the root causes.

Do not think too much about water, just plant trees first and they will surprise you. I have planted dozens shade trees in California dry climate and really been surprised to realize that they do not need much water like we human usually worry… Rosewood, palm, ficus, citrus, berry trees are some good examples…

The drone seed distribution has great potential in getting the largest coverage for tree planting possible. It's good to see people trying to figure these things out. As long as it is focused on seed variety rather than monoculture it should turn out well in regards to regenerating the landscape and dealing with pests/disease. Traditional plant by hand can be expensive and time consuming.

Also the dead trees are really important for the soil. You can't just think about the Carbon, you need to think about building healthy forest.

We started a coffee company and we plant a tree for every bag we sell. A costly affair but I'm really passionate about restoring our forests.

I love these kind of videos, more homeowners need to plant more trees on their properties as well. Too many open space around millions and millions of home everywhere is saddening.

In western Canada a lot deforestation still happens as it provides jobs and if logging companies don't get these old growth trees, forest fires will with fluctuating weather changes. I planted and spaced trees back in the 1990's and glad I made a contribution to this cause.

I love this type of content. Trees can play a big role in addressing climate change, desertification, soil health, and water availability. Would love to see more projects which combine tree planting with water management (e.g. bunds).

It breaks my heart to see the section about Ireland. I used to live in Toronto and I saw more 'wildlife' and heard more birdsong in a sub division close to downtown Toronto than I have seen in the several small villages I have lived in since coming to Ireland. It appears that many things here in Ireland are about making short term money and profits. There is minimal interest in the health of the soil and the environment overall. I fear for the next generations - we will not have healthy soil to grow much in this previously fertile country. Very bad government policy - short term thinking - that is driven by the powerful farmers' associations.

I love plants & trees & I was able to plant 10 trees in the park near my house & I have flower plants on my roof ☺️💖💖🌸🌸🌴🌴

I think Permaculture Farming would be a good answer for the problem. Population has increased enormously, Climate is changing, Globe is warming, we will soon face problems in feeding people and for sustainable solution we need to plant fruit trees of different varieties with forest trees.

Excellent documentary. Good work to the nature. Save our planet.

Happy to see that someone cares, cause here in Brazil we are still trying to destroy it all... 😢

I was waiting for documentary on trees plantation(afforestation,reforestation)....Thanks for it!

40 years ago my classmates and I planted trees at my school to learn about the environment, and those trees would be soaking up around 25 tonnes of CO2 right now if they hadn't been chopped down to make way for a steel climbing frame after only 10 years growth. I sure hope other trees planted by children will be more successful.

The seeds spread in Australia were spread at a very good time, if this report is contemporary. Australia has recorded record rainfall this year due to the triple La Nina so the seeds in the arid Western Australia should thrive as WA has got lots of rain this year. It's so important to grow the right trees for the area. We recently bought a house in Australia and I was happy it had a green belt backyard - that is, the green space was not to be developed as it was a corridor for wildlife. But upon closer inspection the trees didn't look healthy. I called in an arborist and he said that they were all dying. The type of tree was wrong for the soil, climate, city living and also wasn't right for a possum bridge. They were all cut down. Apparently when the house was built the developer was tasked to replace the natural green corridor that was disturbed during development. Except they only stipulated Australian natives, and he planted the wrong types. We are going to plant the correct types but that's 20 years of growth wasted.

One part of the puzzle. Many things will have to be done. Reforestation is part of the solution. Education is another. Thanks for this documentary which shows a little of the complexity that is involved.

Saving the planet means shifting from an extraction mindset to a regenerative one. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, if the end goal is to extract and profit it’s not going to solve any problems.

In Croatia goverment planting trees with drones in special pods ( celulose) wth soil and eco fertiliser for many years and its very useful. Croatian forests are characterized by exceptional biodiversity, so on average around 4,500 plant species and subspecies live in a relatively small area. In contrast to Germany, where "only" 2,500 plant species grow. The most widespread type of tree in our country is beech, which makes up 37% of the total composition of the forest, followed by larch oak (12%), noble oak (9), hornbeam (8), fir (8), field ash (3 %), spruce (2%) and so on.

The US plants more than 1 billion trees a year and Canada more than 600 million. For the past 50 years both countries have planted significantly more then they have harvested, increasing the size of forests every year

I agree you can't just plant one variety of trees, you need a wide variety of trees and shrubs which includes fruit trees and berries which will be balance since it will support the wild life in area.

We badly needed to increase forest across earth🌎. Particularly in largely populated country like India🇮🇳

Great documentary! Let's hope we have a future to build on..

Sustainable forestry is key to Sweden's success, more than 70% of its landscape is covered by forest and in less than 100 years, Sweden's forest assets have doubled and almost 400 million seedlings are planted each year

We are trying to do the do replanting trees and reforestation in Malaysia. Appreciate the exchange knowledge and technology to ensure the reforestation project successful.

That's something good for environment. I wish our institutions could do this

Another excellent and useful DW program.

There is absolutely no reason why we should not be re-foresting areas which we've cut down. Can you imagine if the West Coast Redwoods (that only grow there,) were never cut down at all and the benefits? The west coast of the USA would not be having a drought right now because as our trees disappear, rain does too.

Yup we developed a harmony program on our commercial farm, we have planted around 10,000 trees so far, we plant in shelterbelts to work with crops and cattle in a symbiotic relationship

very good journalism. keep up the good work

Thank you DW for this great documentary 👍. My country has also taken an initiative of "Billion Tree Tsunami".Tackling climate change requires a global effort because many countries which are heavily affected by climate change arent even heavy contributors to green house gases.The developed world needs to do more in the fight against climate change instead of dictating developing countries to do more since they are the major polluters.

DW thank you for this and similar documentaries. It helps me feel hopeful for humanity and like my own personal drops of investing in the future might not be wasted. Thank you again

I'd be interested to know the amount of carbon sequestration per acre of woodland compared to grassland that is grazed, not grazed and arable land? Perhaps you could do a documentary on that DW?

And that's the problem right there, "you can't get anything from planting trees just to plant trees." We need people to plant trees for the health of those living on Earth and for the planet, not just to make a buc.

I was thinking about same idea two years back. But don't know how to implement. But very much needed. Very nice initiative. All the best.

Thankyou for the documentaries DW team

this is the best planting organization I have found so far .. I would like to help . But I am in the states

So that's why I love this channel, it give some useful news....

Surprising there's no mention of permaculture. It's very simple logic, methods that are cost-free, applicable in every environment, with proven answers to every single topic addressed in this video.

Every Sunday I do Plantation since May 2019.... We all should do Plantation at our memorable moments and make it more memorable.... Need more hands and support for Plantation

This documentary suffered from some of the same problems it sought to highlight: a lack of enough nuance, more granular data and more in-depth analysis. Some points to consider for the documentary makers: 1. While mentioning just one of India’s states’ afforestation campaign, they didn’t mention the data of how many sites and what percentage of this afforestation campaign is impacting local Adavasi community rights? This is very important because the documentary stained the entire campaign, without telling us if the entire plan is tainted with rights issues or is that just a tiny fraction of the overall afforestation drive? 2. I wish the documentary would have also covered Agroforestry systems, with the potential to sequester enormous amounts of carbon. Silvopasture and especially intensive Silvopasture systems and Syntropic agroforestry systems in the very least deserved a place in this discussion. As a regenerative agriculturist and climate advisor I have much more granular knowledge than the average educated citizen. This agroforestry discussion would open up regular citizens’ minds to the realm of possibilities out there. Imagine if the Indian government were to help Adavasi communities craft Syntropic farming systems that could completely transform and terraform that state, while economically uplifting Adavasi’s and meeting much of the afforestation and carbon sequestering goals of the state government. 3. While the documentary touched upon urban forestry at the very end, it did so in an extremely sparing manner. It could have mentioned Miyawaki forestry systems, which are extremely diverse, extraordinarily fast growing and can sequester much more carbon than regular diverse plantations. These forests can be extremely micro in scale or much larger. They are an excellent tool in the toolbox and should be deployed across urban and rural landscapes. Imagine if farmland across the world also had small Miyawaki belts and pockets: this will provide excellent agronomic benefits such as helping change microclimates and providing habitats for beneficial insects, birds etc, without compromising farmland abilities to grow food. 4. There are many other good initiatives from across the world that didn’t make it to this documentary: from Africa’s Great Green Wall stopping desertification to China’s very successful UN recognized afforestation efforts in various deserts to Pakistan’s ‘10 Billion Tree Tsunami’ initiative. This is just to name a few. There are a lot of great things happening or are planned, but there’s an enormous lack of funding. The documentary only focused on the (legitimate) point that the wealthy West continues to pump out outrageous amounts of CO2 while expecting the global south to plant forests, but doesn’t highlight the other side, which is where incredibly designed (& ecologically sound) afforestation and reforestation plans are only partially executed because of an extreme paucity of funds. The documentary leaves a regular young urban citizen of a western country with the feeling that “oh afforestation isn’t that good in the global south” because the documentary only showed one example from a developing country that is seemingly riddled with rights issues (and we don’t know the scale of these rights problems as noted in point 1). Let me repeat once more: the global south needs hundreds of billions of dollars every year, for proper and economically sound afforestation+reforestation+forest preservation funding and regenerative agriculture funding that can help the global economies, the global biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis. 5. The documentary did not mention mangrove forests at all. They are much less controversial and while “monocultures” as salt water tolerant trees they are ecosystem superpowers that can sequester 10 times more carbon than terrestrial trees, and the world has lost way too much of its mangroves which requires Herculean reforestation efforts across Asian and African coastlines (mangroves can also be a major boon to fisherman as incredible breeding habitats). 6. The documentary also did not mention very successful reforestation campaigns in some South American countries where indigenous people have been part of the solution and so their rights have been enhanced rather than being trampled upon. It’s important to show all sides so citizens get inspired by systems that are working. The documentary makers can contact me any time for a more detailed and nuanced discussion. I would be delighted to give me time. Perhaps they can then come up with a follow-up and part 2 as well.

Very pleased to know, everyone trying there best to face climate changes. Lets all do our part is any how. ❤️❤️

I think the core of the issue here is that some people interpret and promote the planting of trees as a solution, while in reality it is a bandaid to merely help us navigate the climate crisis. I've planted a lot myself, and intend to continue, but I don't fool myself into thinking that we're anywhere near the light at the end of the tunnel. The disaster is in its first chapter.

IT IS GREAT TO THOSE COUNTRIES HAVE REFORESTATION PROGRAM...I RESPECT YOU ALL.

I have planted about 50 trees in my life mostly in urban environments and about 38-40 still survive. Just planting trees (or seeds) and then going away does not work well as they need watering the first years. If we were to try for the 1,000,000,000,000 trees target, then mathematics suggests that that each person on average should plant about 130 trees in his/her lifetime ... For urban and suburban environments, especially in suburbs, towns and villages, one idea would be to turn people towards planting trees and bushes that produce fruit they can use - in other words, they see they tree/bush as productive and they can enjoy its fruit/produce. This also gives them extra incentive to grow a variety of trees and bushes so that they can have something all year round, while helping the environment by creating more stable units.

Dropping seeds from the air is almost useless. Birds and insects will take nearly all of them. And the remaining have to compete with the weeds. Using seed coating techniques will significantly increase the chance of success. I would suggest some sort of clay mix with a water-absorbent material such as superabsorbent hydrogels (SAHs). Other things such as mycorrhiza /and symbiotic bacteria and humates would help even more. And still, the trees would grow patchy and in an irregular pattern.

So glad to see trees planted.

There are trees in the Savanah that have survived due to underground water supply. Their roots run deep. You have to plant seed trees according to each and every environment and soil compositions. Testing the soil has to be done. And I remember watching past videos of these blue screen nets that catch the water from the air and having it come down into a catching system!

I live in California, in an area that is in one of the five areas with Mediterranean climates on earth. Others are in Chile, Australia and South Africa. These areas have short, cool, wet winters and long, hot, dry summers. All of us who live in these regions are on the front lines of climate change. While much of the worlds vegetables, fruits and nuts are grown in our regions, climate change is making our regions hotter and drier and more prone to the loss of surface and ground water and to fire. One thing I haven't heard enough about is deforestation in our region. Here in California, millions of pines, oaks an trees from other species are dying by the tens and hundreds of millions. Also, we Californians are clearing trees and shrubs and mowing down grasses in order to protect our homes and towns from fire. My neighbors and I are also cutting down tens of millions of trees and hundreds of millions of shrubs. The grasslands that replace the trees and shrubs and basically dead zones, monocultures lacking birdsong. In California, over 95 percent of what grows in these cleared areas are Eurasian, invasive, spring-annual grasses and weedy forbs. And, these spring annuals dry out by early summer, leaving behind dense, fine, dry stems that are perfect for spreading fire.

LOVE such content!!

If a diverse seeding results in a forest. The forest would hav to be managed to prevent forest fires. Thinning, under pruning, controlled burning and grazing. The prunings can be chopped and drop to feed the forest.

There is a nice rainy swath across Northern Europe that will accommodate Norwegian Spruce in abundance; if you are England, the difficult hardwoods are the base species, but Douglas Fir will also grow.

You guys are awesome thank you for doing that we got too many treat College look at these loggers and Home Depot and Lowe's cutting all our trees they don't care thank you for doing that New York

In Australia... they'll need forest rangers to nurture and care for the saplings until fully matured.... Fruit Trees would be ideal as Fruit forests are also economics so that the trees can pay for thier care and watering since those Australian regions are "desert like". I believe it takes longer to "terra form" that's why an "army of tree huggers" will be needed...

The beech is the best, but that only grows on the really good soils here, then oak will do. In winter, conifers act like solar collectors, so with mixed forests, it might be better to plant more deciduous trees.

Plant native tree seeds and they will grow on their own. Plant before the rainy season. You don't need human management or irrigation. Native tree seeds are planted by birds every day. We simply need to help the birds out and move things along faster.

Need some companion planting, some appropriate food plants and swales to help retain water. Native planting is paramount.

good job DW. somehow a german documentary is my source of local news. as a western australian, i had no idea about the tree planting project, none of our news medias covered it. shows how anti-environment my country is lmao.

Finland plants about 150 million seedlings per year. Since a long time, every 3 trees cut out has to be compensated with 4 seedlings planted. Worked for 60 years (last year the ballnwas dropped but actions are made to fix it).

Birds already do this currently. Birds eat food that has seeds inside. When birds pop, they also pop seed with it. Therefore, the seeds are surrounded with bird pop as fertiliser ready to be grown when the rain comes. All this is done by the birds for free.

DW has become my favorite source of documentaries.

Mixed forests carry out more carbon capture in general plant size (volume), in overall utilization of light (including light that penetrates the canopy), and even with the soil's microbial life (biome). The nice thing about mixed forests is that you have more than one harvest which adds to economic resiliency. Alder is good for veneers, while as a forest plant it fixes nitrogen to help feed other trees as a sort of nursery plant. Cedar is a rot resistant tree great for decking and fence posts. Douglas is good for stock lumber. Mushrooms are re another harvest. Tree greenery is nice for the floral trade. Herbs can be gathered, and the list goes on. That's a list of what does well in my area. The guy from Germany may be blowing smoke to promote his agenda. His questions are correct in some aspects, but he's suggesting plans not in place, nor even considered at times. Maybe he's just vain, maybe more, maybe nothing. Planting for fuel is valid and encourages replanting, but include a biodiversity. Leave the tree roots in the soil, they're sequestering carbon, too. Plant trees, shrubs and vines for nuts, fruits, edible leaves, tree hay, coppicing. Farmers can switch them up within the rows, instead of 'a row of beech , a row of oaks,' etc for enhanced production. They all need to do terraforming for water. They need to diversify their tree crops for better financial security, and because it uses less water than a monoculture. The farmers could learn from Mark Shepard how to do alley planting better for profitability with diversity, carbon sequestration, improved food production, and enhanced wildlife diversity, too. He's adapted a savannah-style method of farming to reduce input needs while being a realistic model for farming. Suggest others read his book on Restoration Agriculture. 'Two trees'planted in a flood plane is still lacking adequate diversity. I see so many faults in the oversight of all of these.

Everybody needs to participate in this Devine work congratulations

In Canada for every tree we cut down, we had e plant 6 , which has caused a problem, do the fact as a tree gets older it more subseptable to disease, ,so we need to cut them down when younger

i think we need to focus on NOT cutting trees down, rather than manually planting more. Nature plants trees with or without human assistance.

In hot deserts, tree planting is the easier part built rather the avoidance of the trees being lost (such as by people) and the water issues are key. Water canal _(where possible for land elevation)_ is the way forward with railways to maintain those waters _(often lined canals with concrete or other linings)._ Desalination via solar and also alternative-power via eco-friendly pyrolisis and gasifiers is part of it. You put defensive capabilities on the trains (and anti-aircraft nearby) as many a cash crop uses the trees, so the chap's concerns about there being too many trees need not weigh oon his mind since much is cut and restored over time anyway for crops. A dual gauge railway (european and 3M standard) allows for the trains to support people in the way "normal trains" cannot do so well. The aim is to make profit too. Tobacco and private healthcare with staff voucher systems (so healthcare is part of it) with some philanthropy of health care (for locals) does the trick in many a scenario. The 3Metre train track especially allows for different workflows on some trains that do not use complex junctions, and so office and education capabilities are examples of profit to be made in them, let alone cargo. The other lighter railways are for lower cost bridges, like a train akin to an intercity125. All railways carry communications capabilities for private enterprise and rangers, etc. also crop data like tobacco and chocolate and so on. My comment has no hate in it and I do no harm. I am not appalled or afraid, boasting or envying or complaining... Just saying. Psalms23: Giving thanks and praise to the Lord and peace and love.

Is it just me thinking about all the flies on the professor face, but still maintain steady speech. Great work.

I see much space in between highways, and always wonder why they didn't replant after they were done. It would be a great spot and also cut the lights from uncoming traffic.

Hard to go wrong planting trees. However, what are the animals going to eat in a monoculture of evergreens? Not a mention of Bill Mollison and Permaculture.

A healthy natural forest may remove more carbon than ONE round of growth from a monocultural plantation, but you should be measuring the total carbon removed over eg 50 years or 100 years, during which time the plantation will have had multiple rounds of carbon production. If that production goes to making eg furniture or houses, it will have removed more carbon, surely?

Great documentary.. thanks DW!💯

No matter what you do someone is negative. A lot of these lands had trees..who watered them before? A few smart people have recognised forests need animals and birds to complete an eco cycle that keeps them growing. In some countries they use mesh nets and mesh towers that capture moisture from the air..mist ect. Would be handy for these young trees until a canopy can shade the ground.

why use drones when we have birds?

Lord of the trees 🌳 🙏 🙌 😍

I have a humble request to all global leaders. Give priority to environment. Never give priority to arms and amunition.

Reforestation is important to improve air quality. Specific trees must be used in different terrains.

If it's gonna save our planet we need to do it

Check for “save soil” campaign 🌿 This is the big changer that we all need in the world. The person who initiated this is called Sadhguru, and his work is to “marry economy with ecology” as without this “marriage” economy will beat hands down ecology. They showed how a farmer can plant trees and have a big ecological affect, and at the same time that farmer has an increase of 300-800 % of income in a matter of a few years

I planted at least 300 trees back in Poland 🇵🇱 and alot in Australian, and love them,my best friends

i worked on a planting crew we all planted 1000 seedlings with plugs before lunch even on hard ground - on flat ripped ground 3-400 a hour each - its not easy its a hard job the weather the travel the hard part

Yeah, just watch the enormous deforestation building the Tren Maya in the Mayan Riviera in Mexico 🇲🇽

no mention of sequestration by boosting soil organic matter in a forested ecosystem. wish there was also more of a discussion about agroforestry and compromises

Excellent work for nature.... God bless you....

In the city of Philadelphia in the USA you can get a free tree from the city in the spring. They offer different varieties every year including fruit trees, so check it out!

Much appreciate these types of documentaries

Love the contents , love to see the greeneries all around .... beautiful docu & it's an eye opener to the rest of humankind , # Nurture the Nature for a better Future~ Yogini Shiva

How about planting bamboo, coconut trees 🌴 or banana trees? These plants has multi purpose, it's fruits/ leaves are full of fiber. Example, the bamboo & banana leaves are used to wrapping/cooking food. Palm leave are used to make brooms or 🛖 for the locals.

Pakistan has planted 1B trees in KPK province from 2013-18. Now, it has planted 3B more of 10B target set till 2023.

another idea as well as drones,using aircraft that use water to put out fires,they can also dump out seeds and they can shower the seeds over a very large area