How Many Trees Were Planted in 2018?

Deforestation is a global issue. The world loses 18.7 million acres of forests each year, equivalent to the size of Panama. Trees are not only essential to the planet’s oxygen supply, but they also play a crucial role in regulating temperature, preventing soil erosion, and preserving wildlife habitats. In 2015, the United Nations set a goal of planting 1 billion trees by 2030 to combat deforestation and climate change. One of the ways to measure progress towards that goal is to look at how many trees were planted in the past year.

The Million Tree Challenge

In September 2018, Kenya launched the Million Tree Challenge, a countrywide initiative aimed at planting one million trees in one day. Over 12 hours, volunteers including school children, government officials, and celebrities planted a total of 3.5 million trees. The event marked the beginning of a larger effort to plant 10 million trees by the end of the year. Although the final count for 2018 has not yet been released, the success of the Million Tree Challenge suggests that Kenya is on track to reach its target.

The Great Green Wall

The Great Green Wall is an ambitious project launched in 2007 by the African Union to fight desertification and drought in the Sahel region. The plan is to plant a 5,000-mile wall of trees across the continent from Senegal to Djibouti, which would serve as a barrier against the expansion of the Sahara desert. Since the project started, 15 African countries have committed to planting the wall. In 2018, Senegal made significant progress towards its own goal of planting 10,000 hectares of trees in 2018 alone, and Nigeria launched a new initiative to plant 25 million trees over the next five years.

The Chinese Greening Program

China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, but the country is also leading the way in tree planting initiatives. In 2018, China announced the start of a new phase of its national greening program, which aims to increase forest coverage to 23 percent of the country’s total land area by 2020. The program includes measures to reforest degraded areas, create new forests, and improve existing forests. In the first half of 2018, China planted 3.35 million hectares of trees, bringing the total for the year to an estimated 6.66 million hectares.

Conclusion

Measuring progress towards the goal of planting 1 billion trees is a complex task, as initiatives are taking place across the world at different scales. However, the examples discussed above show that there are significant advances being made in planting trees to combat deforestation and climate change. While there is still a long way to go, these initiatives demonstrate that it is possible to make a positive impact on the environment through collective efforts.