by Amanda Drollinger, AWC Central Scotland
I had the privilege of attending COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. It was an amazing opportunity to hear directly from environmental action groups, environmental innovators, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, national and international organizations, nations and world leaders. They shared their plans, strategies and trajectories for navigating the climate crises and climate change. I learned first and foremost that climate change is not a matter of this OR that solution, it is a matter of this AND that solution. The problems we face are too many and too complex to have a single solution. While we can look at the solutions one at a time, we must always keep in mind the many other “ands” that are also needed. One aspect that was agreed upon and which drew my interest at the conference was forest and tree management and that relationship to human occupation of the earth and our ecosystem/welfare. This is something fundamental to our existence, and we all can take the time to be involved in its creation and protection. Trees: let’s plant them, protect them and enjoy them.
Declaration on Forests and Land Use
At COP26 on November 12, 2021, the Declaration on Forests and Land Use was signed by 141 countries (of the 197 parties in attendance). With the identified countries pledging to “Emphasise the critical and interdependent roles of forests of all types, biodiversity and sustainable land use in enabling the world to meet its sustainable development goals; to help achieve a balance between anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and removal by sinks; to adapt to climate change; and to maintain other ecosystem services.” The Declaration goes on to commit to “working collectively to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.” In the six points of the declaration, the first is “Conserve forests and other terrestrial ecosystems and accelerate their restoration.”
Ways of participating individually
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Small scale: Planting trees and plants in your own private garden or yard that create or encourage location-appropriate biodiversity.
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Medium scale: If you live in an urban location or apartment without a private garden area, then city public parks and gardens or shared lands are a great place to plant. These spaces will all need to be planted with the approval of city and local community organizations to ensure longevity and maintenance.
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Large scale: Planting trees and plants with the introduction of indigenous animals in national parks and/or with land restoration and management charities.
How do we, individually, engage with reforestation and rewilding?
Reforestation and rewilding, whether at the small, medium or large scale, are all location-dependent. Working with the right information sources will yield the best outcomes for the plants and for biodiversity. The location of the trees is critical in identifying and introducing the most appropriate biodiversity. Some examples of good information sources are botanical gardens. The Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh is my local example, and while they work worldwide and can be a source of information for many countries, there might be a more local option. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew is another resource dedicated to understanding and sharing information on global biodiversity. Kew was at COP26 to promote its global biodiversity information sharing function. These information sources can work well at any scale, whether you are looking to plant a single tree in your own yard or thousands of trees and plants with a land restoration charity.
One way to think about tree planting is through carbon compensation for your flights. How can you compensate?
- Go to My Climate.org to calculate the amount of CO² produced by your flight. There will be an amount given (in tons) that you can use to calculate the number of trees you need to plant in order to compensate. Remember: 1000k = 1 metric ton = 1 tree (If, for some reason you don’t want to compensate with tree planting in the FAWCO Grove, a monetary amount to offset your carbon footprint is given on the website along with a number of projects that are also good compensation alternatives.)
- For the FAWCO Grove with Trees for Life, go to the following link: FAWCO Grove. The cost to plant one tree is £6 / €6.80 / $7.50. Donate the amount needed for the number of trees needed to compensate for your flight – make sure to round up for a whole number of trees – and your compensation is complete.
A reforestation and rewilding charity
Trees for Life is my local Scottish example of a good reforestation and rewilding charity. There are many others worldwide, and choosing one that you can visit and see the results is fun and a huge reassurance that the money donated is making a difference. Alongside their reforestation work, Trees for Life also advocates and facilitates rewilding. They will be establishing the world’s first Rewilding Centre at Dundreggan, with the aim of educating the public about rewilding. Dundreggan is the gateway location to the majority of their tree-planting work, with the existing trails through the woodland they’ve planted. As part of the Rewilding Europe initiative, Trees for Life will expand their work into Glen Affric in the Scottish Highlands.
“The Affric Highlands will be a pioneering area for selling nature-based carbon at a premium price from the rewilding work carried out. We are exploring the potential to sell accredited carbon with positive outcomes for communities as well as for nature, and develop so called ‘rewilding credits’ which will directly benefit private landowners and the community. We envisage that carbon capture will become a key feature of the area’s business model, with an increasing amount of carbon stored year-on-year from habitat restoration work.”
Sources:
Disappearing Woodland by Sally Delahooke
https://ukcop26.org/glasgow-leaders-declaration-on-forests-and-land-use/
Play with Nature illustration by Tharien van Eck, from the children’s book What is a Perfect World?
