Can planting trees mitigate climate change?

Can planting trees mitigate climate change?

Subject: Environment

• While trees are important carbon sinks, there is significant data that shows that the global potential for trees to mitigate climate change is grossly overestimated.
• Low survival of saplings, unsuitable planting sites, lack of good quality seeds, wrong trees planted in the wrong places and large-scale planting without a plan are some of the reasons that tree plantation drives are not always successful in the long term.
• Planting trees can be beneficial in many ways. However, the focus needs to move away from afforestation (planting new forests) to reforestation (restoring forests).
• According to studies in the Central Himalayas and the Coromandel coast (southeastern coast of India), planted trees showed hugely variable survival rates over 5-10 years.
• Sholas are patches of stunted tropical montane forest found in valleys amid rolling grassland in the higher montane regions of South India; this ecosystem is now getting damaged due to invasive trees.
  • Due to high isolation and unique climatic conditions, the Shola forests are characterised by high endemism. The species of plants and animals found here are native to this region and such species cannot be found anywhere else in the world. For example – NilgiriTahr. (Iucn status endangered )
  • They are found only in South India in the Southern Western Ghats high altitude mountains in the states Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Nowhere else in the world exists such a kind of forests.
  • Shola tree species have one of the lowest regeneration rates. They do not get established very soon and are very sensitive to climatic changes
  • shola forests have high water retention capacity than any other soil.
  • They are the source of water in rivers live Cauvery, Thamirabarani, Vaiga.
  • They are the reason for moderate climates for several cities along their foothills. For example – Coimbatore.
  • They are part of world’s Biodiversity Hotspot.
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
  • It is the international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to provide policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation.
  • IPCC assessments provide a scientific basis for governments at all levels to develop climate related policies, and they underlie negotiations at the UN Climate Conference – the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• The Trillion Tree Campaign is a project which aims to plant one trillion trees worldwide.
  • It seeks to repopulate the world’s trees and combat climate change as a nature-based solution. The project was launched at PlantAhead 2018 in Monaco by an NGO Plant-for-the-Planet.
• The 2020 World Economic Forum, held in Davos, announced the creation of the One Trillion Tree initiative platform for governments, businesses, and civil society to provide support to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2020–2030), led by UNEP and FAO.