By Gavin Hudson •
April 21, 2009
Trees for the Future, a US-based NGO, has planted 65 million trees in dozens of countries. And they’re still going.
For almost exactly 20 years now, Trees for the Future has been coaching farmers on sustainable agroforestry techniques. That’s a fancy way to say farmers can improving their soil and crop quality by planting trees around the farm. The trees help by holding in soil moisture and drawing water back to refill water tables, preventing erosion and improving soil fertility.
Editor’s note: Is planting trees a valuable tool for fighting climate change? Or is it a feel-good activity without much effect? Our friends at Eco-Libris point to another study which argues tree-planting can work in sequestering carbon dioxide. This post was originally published on Friday, May 16, 2008.
There is an ongoing debate on the effectiveness of trees planting operations as a tool mitigate global warming. A new research from Australia adds more input into it, showing that agroforestry and reforestation are an important carbon sink.
The research, as reported on The Age, was conducted by researchers from Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence, and Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries. It was presented to an agriculture, greenhouse gases and emissions trading conference on the Gold Coast.
Dr. Beverley Henry from MLA, who presented the research, showed that different forms of land management had a variety of effects on soil carbon. She said, according to the article, that researchers, analysing data from 74 publications on land-use changes, had made several conclusions:
