The critical role of conserving forests and planting trees to address climate change became widely recognised in the early 2000s. Britain's Stern Review of 2006 and Australia's Garnaut Climate Change Review of 2008 each highlighted the value of forest conservation and increasing forest extent for carbon sequestration and stocks and, from 2009, the UNFCCC's REDD+ mechanism provided a means for funding these activities in countries of the global South. 

In parallel, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and others were promoting the importance of 'Forest and Landscape Restoration' (FLR), to address both environmental degradation and its impacts on people's livelihoods; in some respects, this was an international version of Australia's Landcare movement. FLR is based on the environmental services that trees provide at a range of scales, and recognition that restoration must contribute to sustaining and supporting household and rural economies. 

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These two strands of international and national focus - climate and restoration - converged in 2015 under the 'Bonn Challenge', a voluntary global initiative for environment- and people-sensitive forest and landscape restoration. The subsequent Trillion Trees initiative, promoted by the international environmental NGOs WWF, WCS and Birdlife International, is promoting 'the right trees, in the right places'. In response, many countries in both the global South (see Bonn Challenge) and North (eg New Zealand), have made voluntary reforestation commitments. Australia's policy ambition is currently limited to a billion softwood plantation trees, although NGOs such as WWF and initiatives such as Restore Australia have more ambitious and holistic goals. 

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The Trillion Trees tagline, 'the right trees, in the right places', is a familiar mantra to those involved in planting trees and restoring landscapes, but one worth restating to guard against perverse outcomes. In the Australian context, it is recognised by the forest industry sector - their 'Billion Trees for Jobs and Growth' is focused on regions with existing plantation resources. However, as we saw during the MIS-driven 'Plantations 2020' expansion of the first decade of the 2000s, it's still a challenge that requires better coordination between all levels of government to have plantation trees established in the right places. But like New Zealand, our ambitions should be much broader than just plantation forests, and recognise the multiplicity of roles for trees in Australian landscapes. 

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The logic of establishing trees on a large scale globally to mitigate climate change and deliver other environmental services is clear, economically and environmentally. Restoration complements arresting deforestation, which has slowed but remains significant globally and in Australia's forests; we're still a global 'deforestation front', in WWF's language. Restoring trees and other native vegetation to Australia's landscapes will require drawing from the experience of those with longstanding commitment to restoration, such as Greening Australia and Landcare groups, connecting the new ambitious restoration initiatives and targets to those established networks to and their experiences, and enabling communities and proponents with more proactive, inclusive and integrated public policies and programs. 

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Peter Kanowski 

25.01.21