Laudable goals to restore forests and other ecosystems are being twisted into a licence to plant trees anywhere — regardless of the damage this can cause to the environment and to livelihoods. In this long-read for SciDev.Net I look at the plight of grasslands, seen as “damaged” and therefore ripe for planting. The story begins in Madagascar.
Most surprising for me was that grasslands may actually be better than forests in some places at sequestering carbon, once you factor everything in. Second surprise was that trees planted in the wrong place can suck the water out of rivers with disastrous consequences for human communities. My third take-home was that the wrong trees can spread invasively and can be too flammable for the local climate. The resulting fires can kill (and they have done so). More here:
