Fran Southgate, our UK specialist and advisor writes for Sussex Wildlife Trust “Climate Change - is tree planting the solution?”.
Tree planting, in the right circumstances, and preferably using natural tree regeneration, can of course be a large part of the solution to help buffer the impacts of man-made climate change. However it is not the silver bullet. Tree planting is not an excuse for Governments, corporations and individuals to carry on with ‘business as usual’. We need large scale, industry, business and community led solutions, behavioural changes, and cultural changes to ensure that we meet the necessary carbon targets to avert the worst effects of climate change over the next few decades. We also need to stop cutting down our existing forests at unprecedented rates.’
Fran Southgate is a Living Landscape Advisor.