Tree planting
47 cases in 44 countries, 1974–2024. Most cases: India (5), Brazil (4), Ethiopia (4), Kenya (4), United States (3).
Microsoft forestry carbon deals and the Apple Restore Fund
Microsoft contracted tens of millions of tonnes of forestry-based carbon removal from re.green, Rubicon, Chestnut Carbon and Kijani Forestry, while its own emissions rose 29% between 2020 and 2023. Apple's Restore Fund, managed by Climate Asset Management, invests partly in plantings of commercial species such as eucalyptus.
Felling of 619 old trees begins for Tokyo's Jingu Gaien redevelopment
Felling of 619 old trees began in Tokyo for the Jingu Gaien redevelopment, which was presented as increasing the number of trees. The stake is the loss of mature urban trees against that claim.
Spanish region expropriates olive groves for Lopera solar plants
A regional government in Spain declared solar plants in Lopera, Jaén, of public interest and moved to expropriate olive groves from owners who refused to sell. Campaigners put the trees at risk near 100,000, against 13,000 given by the government.
Great Nicobar project compensatory afforestation (India)
About 130 km² of tropical forest on Great Nicobar island was set aside for an airport, port, power plant and city, with the compensatory afforestation planned about 2,400 km away in Haryana. On 20 June 2023 a Haryana village's land was placed under protection, and the state's mining department auctioned a quarter of it the same day.
Over one million unplanted saplings in Uzbekistan reported as planted
In June 2024 Uzbekistan's Prosecutor General's Office reported 541 cases in which more than a million seedlings of the Yashil Makon (Green Space) project were recorded as planted but existed only on paper. In October 2024 the president said more than a million trees had been planted on non-irrigated land or falsely reported.
Biomas restoration initiative
Six Brazilian and international companies announced Biomas at COP27 in November 2022, a company to restore, conserve and preserve 4 million hectares over 20 years, financed by selling carbon credits. Later project details come from press reports and are unconfirmed.
Historic Nile floating houses removed in Cairo; tree felling in 2026 sparks outcry
Historic floating houses on the Nile in Cairo were removed, and in September 2026 The National reported that tree felling in the city had sparked national outcry. The stake is the city's trees and its historic Nile-side homes.
Yashil Makon tree-planting programme in Uzbekistan
The government reported 872 million seedlings planted over four years under Yashil Makon, against an annual plan of 200 million. Prosecutor inspections in 2023, statements by the president in 2024 and 2026 and an Accounts Chamber audit in 2026 recorded seedlings entered in reports but not planted, planted without irrigation, or dried out.
Mongolia's One Billion Trees movement: pledges, offset trees and reported survival rates
A presidential decree presented on 4 October 2021 launched a national campaign to plant one billion trees by 2030. Reported totals mix trees planted directly with “offset” trees counted from investment, and reported survival rates differ by source.
Sahel restoration carbon finance: AFR100 pledges, a projected USD 28bn carbon asset value and 11 registered projects in Great Green Wall countries
AFR100 stated that 33 African countries had committed to restore 129.27 million hectares, with USD 1bn in development finance and USD 481 million in private commitments. A December 2024 WEF and Tree Aid paper projected carbon asset value of up to USD 28bn in Great Green Wall countries, where 11 of Africa's 74 registered nature-based voluntary carbon projects were located.
Campaigners claim Suzano eucalyptus dried over 130 streams in Brazil
Brazilian pulp company Suzano is a partner in the Biomas restoration venture and an early 1t.org tree pledger. Campaigners claim its eucalyptus monoculture has dried more than 130 streams, and the cited sources do not record a reply from Suzano.
Scotland's natural-capital land rush
Companies bought estates to plant forests and offset emissions. Estate prices rose about 87% in a year; at one flagship site more than half the young pines died.
Sveaskog logging of old forest in Luokta-Mávas Sámi reindeer land (Sweden)
Sveaskog, Sweden's state-owned forest company, wanted to fell about 700 hectares in the Luokta-Mávas reindeer grazing area; a Sámi representative said only 200 hectares had been agreed. A 2022 study found that old forest lost to felling does not show up in official forest statistics.
TotalEnergies Batéké acacia carbon project (Congo)
A 40,000-hectare acacia plantation on the Batéké plateau in the Republic of Congo was planned to generate carbon credits for TotalEnergies. Reporting found that farmers lost land, and that the project stopped in May 2025 with about 12.5% of the target planted.
Kazakhstan's two-billion-tree programme
A 2020 presidential instruction set a target of planting at least 2 billion trees on forest-fund land by 2025; the programme was extended to 2027. Ministry figures put annual tree survival between 31.2% and 50.5% in 2021–2024, against a launch target of 65%, and a Mazhilis deputy said in 2025 that millions of trees reported as planted in some regions could not be found.
Land sales and logging on Sami reindeer pasture in Sweden, NGO reports
Global Forest Coalition reported that 10,400 ha were sold in Sami areas of Sweden, including more than 2,000 ha of reindeer pasture, and that 400 ha of forest were logged in 32 forests. For nature, the stake is forest cover and the grazing land that reindeer herders depend on.
Ethiopia: 353 million seedlings in a day
Ethiopia announced that 353,633,660 seedlings were planted in 12 hours in July 2019. The government later put survival above 80%; a study in one district found 39.8%.
Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life)
Mexico's tree-planting programme pays farmers a monthly sum to plant trees. A World Resources Institute estimate found it may have contributed to the loss of 72,830 hectares of forest cover in its first year.
Shell nature-based solutions and carbon-neutral driving ads
Shell announced up to $300 million for natural ecosystems and offered customers carbon-neutral driving by offsetting fuel emissions. The Dutch Advertising Code Committee found the carbon-neutral advertising misleading; its rulings are not binding.
Russian forest-climate projects: RUSAL fire-protection units and Sakhalin larch planting
RUSAL Krasnoyarsk's aerial fire-protection project on 504,986 hectares earned Russian carbon units, and units from it were sold to a UAE fund in October 2024 in the first foreign transaction in Russia's registry. Registry operator, forestry agency and scientists have questioned forest-project quality in general, and one registered project plans to plant larch on bogs on Sakhalin.
Community land trust for 11th Street Bridge Park holds over 250 housing units
A community land trust set up for the 11th Street Bridge Park in Washington, D.C., holds more than 250 housing units, and 131 households bought homes, according to Results for America. The cited sources do not describe the park's effect on the natural environment.
Kenya's 15 billion trees target
Kenya set a target of 15 billion trees and 30% tree cover by 2032, and declared a national tree-planting day in 2023. The same year it lifted a logging ban; an environmental court halted the lifting.
Kenya logging ban lifted and eucalyptus felling
Kenya lifted its 2018 logging ban in July 2023 and a court set the decision aside in October 2023. A 2024 report cited six million eucalyptus trees in six months, while the government set a target of 15 billion trees by 2032.
Afforestation of the dried Aral Sea bed in Uzbekistan
The Government of Uzbekistan states that protective plantings were set up on about 2 million hectares of the dried Aral Sea bed in 2018–2025 to hold down sand, salt and dust. The government releases state no budget and no survival rate; a forestry scientist put sapling survival at 50–70% in wetter years and about 30% in low-rainfall years.
Record tree-planting claims in Ethiopia, India and Türkiye lack independent checks
Governments in Ethiopia and Türkiye announced planting totals and survival rates that no independent count has confirmed. Tree planting may also be unsuited to savanna land counted in African restoration pledges.
Delta Blue Carbon mangrove project (Pakistan)
A 60-year partnership between the Government of Sindh and Indus Delta Capital restores mangroves in the Indus Delta and sells carbon credits. Reported revenue to the province ranges from $14.7 million to about $50 million, and no community share has been published.
State auditors reported 61% survival for Philippine tree planting, 2015-2019
Reviewing 2015-2019 tree planting by the environment department, state auditors reported a 61 per cent survival rate. Whether the planting restored forest is not on record.
Sinar Mas/APP fires burned 293,065 hectares; replanting was the recorded sanction
Fires in Indonesia from 2012 to 2024 burned 293,065 hectares linked to Sinar Mas/APP and 150,693 hectares linked to RGE/APRIL. The cited sources list replanting as the sanction and do not show how much forest was restored.
Plant-for-the-Planet: 13.6 billion trees
A German foundation that took over the UN Environment Programme's tree campaign reported 13.6 billion trees planted. The figure has no independent verification; Die Zeit reported that older UN counts were mixed into it.
APRIL pulp suppliers linked to forest loss and Cerrado eucalyptus growth
Suppliers new to pulp company APRIL lost about 80,000 hectares of forest between 2015 and 2024, and eucalyptus plantations in Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul grew from 378,195 to 1.12 million hectares between 2010 and 2019. At stake for nature is remaining forest and savanna cover in the Cerrado.
Livelihoods Fund mangrove project (Senegal)
A mangrove-planting project in the Casamance and Sine Saloum deltas planted 10,415 hectares in 2009–2012 and issued almost 500,000 credits, all of which went to its corporate investors. A 2014 verification found almost total loss of tree cover in a quarter of sampled plots.
Chikweti forestry plantations (Mozambique)
A Dutch pension fund held a majority stake in a fund that planted pine and eucalyptus in Niassa province, Mozambique. A 2010 government review found that 32,000 hectares were occupied without land-use rights.
Great Green Wall: USD 19bn tracked, USD 2.5bn disbursed by March 2023, and a restored area reported at between 1.66 and almost 18 million hectares
The African Union's Great Green Wall initiative has 2030 targets of 100 million hectares restored, 250 MtC sequestered and 10 million green jobs. The UNCCD's Independent Review reported USD 19bn pledged and USD 2.5bn disbursed in March 2023; its 2026 review reported 1.66 million hectares under restoration at 31 December 2025.
India CAMPA compensatory afforestation fund
India's compensatory afforestation fund collects payments from projects that clear forest land and spends them on planting. Civil-society records document planting on land communities held or claimed, and an official audit found fund money used on consumer goods.
Mangrove restoration failures (Sri Lanka, Philippines, Indonesia, Sundarbans)
Mangrove planting programmes in four regions announced targets in hectares or seedlings. Field studies and press reports record low survival at many sites, and in two cases the implementing body's announcement could not be matched with survival data.
Dutch timber firm Koninklijke Wijma penalised in Cameroon in 2002
Koninklijke Wijma, a timber company based in Kampen, was penalised in January 2002 for felling protected species and small-diameter trees in Cameroon. Greenpeace said it found Wijma-stamped logs outside the company's permit area.
Kenya's two official figures: 8.83% forest cover and 12.13% tree cover
Kenya's Forest Service reports 8.83% forest cover and 12.13% tree cover for 2021, and the constitution's 10% target is tied to tree cover. Satellite data shows more than 19% tree cover loss in the Mau Forest from 2001 to 2022, which the Forest Service disputes.
China's natural forest logging ban and the shift of timber imports
China limited natural-forest logging from 1998 and banned it fully from 2014, while timber imports rose above domestic commercial output. A 2010 study cited in the sources says 74% of China's forest gain over the last five years was offset by displacement abroad.
Costa Rica payments for ecosystem services and forest recovery
Since 1997 Costa Rica has paid landowners not to cut forest or to plant trees, and forest cover rose from about 21% in the late 1980s to nearly 60%. An independent study of the early years found no significant effect of the payments on deforestation.
FACE Foundation Mount Elgon carbon forest (Uganda)
A 1994 agreement covering 25,000 hectares of Mount Elgon in Uganda is listed as a carbon forest project. Reporting links the project area to the eviction of the Benet people.
FAO data show Philippine old-growth forest was 3.3% of land by 1998
FAO's 1998 assessment put old-growth dipterocarp forest at 984,100 hectares, 3.3% of the country's land area, and found that 57% of industrial log supply came from illegal logging and other substitutes.
Vietnam's forest recovery and logging displaced abroad
Vietnam restricted logging in its natural forests from 1992 and its forest cover rose. A 2009 study found that wood harvesting equal to 39.1% of the domestic regrowth was displaced abroad, about half of the imports being illegal.
US Northwest federal logging limits and the shift of timber cutting
Federal logging on Pacific Northwest forests fell from 12.7 billion board-feet in 1987 to 1.7 billion in 2002. A 2019 letter by Brian Murray confirms an earlier finding that more than 80% of the blocked volume moved to other North American forests, mainly the US South.
Green Belt Movement and Karura Forest, Kenya
A tree-planting movement founded in Kenya in 1977 campaigned against land grabs in public forests. The cited sources show 477 hectares of Karura Forest allocated to 64 developers in 1994–1999 and continuing tree-cover loss in the Mau Forest.
Chile's Decree-Law 701 planting subsidy raised tree cover but cut native forest
A 1974–2012 decree that paid 75 percent of planting costs in Chile was linked to rising tree cover and falling native forest. A 2020 study found no rise in carbon storage and faster biodiversity loss.
Worldview International Foundation mangrove project (Myanmar)
A Myanmar mangrove planting programme registered with Verra reports seedling survival of 86 to 96 percent and an AA rating from BeZero. The cited sources contain no independent audit.
Decades of planting in Himachal Pradesh did not raise average forest cover
A 2021 study found no net canopy gain across 430 plantations in the Indian state, and little direct benefit for local people from decades of planting.