by Daniel B

Created on: March 25, 2007   Last Updated: May 02, 2007

As a general rule, planting trees is an excellent idea. They consume carbon dioxide, give off oxygen, prevent erosion, can help maintain water tables, and provide a range of other benefits, from shade and timber to fruit, nuts, flowers or even medicines. For this reason, Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts as founder of the tree-planting Green Belt Movement, told delegates to a 2005 forest conference at United Nations headquarters that for each person, there should be ten trees. She asked, "Do you know where your ten trees are?"

But planting trees and letting them die won't help. And planting the wrong trees can actually hurt: if you're somewhere with little groundwater, you shouldn't plant species of trees that will consume all that water, leaving none for you, your crops, or your animals! It's vitally important to plant species that are appropriate or native to the location, environmentally beneficial and, if you wish, beneficial to your own needs or desires for shade, flowers, fruit, timber, medicine, or other resources.

The World Agroforestry Centre, formerly known as the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry and still often referred to as ICRAF, is an excellent informational resource for those interested in planting trees. Its "Agroforestree" database, available on-line at www.worldagroforestrycentre.org, contains information on over 5,000 known tree species, including such information as their native and exotic ranges, what resources they provide, and what climate and care they need.

During the 2006 United Nations climate change conference in Nairobi, a campaign was announced jointly by the UN Environment Programme, the Green Belt Movement, and the World Agroforestry Centre to see one billion trees planted and properly cared for in the year 2007. This number may seem enormous, as it represents a tree for every eight people in the world, but the campaign's sponsors were quick to point out that there are many billions of trees in the world's tropical forests today. Planting a billion trees, they said, would be "a good start."

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