The EU is starting a program to plant an additional three billion trees by 2030 – almost as many as there are in Austria’s forests.
Europe’s forest should grow. This is an element in the European Union’s forest strategy. Part of the “Green Deal” that the EU presented last year is the targeted planting of trees in all 27 member states. The aim is to plant “at least three billion additional trees” by 2030. Afforestation is ruled out, as is the planting of tree species that are not appropriate to the location or in unsuitable places. In order for a plantation to be included in the program, “the ecological principles must be fully respected”, says an EU description of the initiative.
“It is part of our efforts to reduce the effects of climate change and to stop the loss of biodiversity,” said EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius at the start of the “MapMyTree” homepage, which went online on Thursday.
Double the annual growth
And further: “Three billion is a large number, but together we can make this a reality!” According to estimates, an additional 300 million trees have grown annually in Europe’s forests since 2015. This number is to be doubled so that the three billion mark can be reached by 2030.
With a forested area of almost 48% of the national territory, Austria is one of the more forested countries on the continent. The proportion of forests is by far the highest in Scandinavia, in Slovenia, Estonia and Latvia there are also (relatively) significantly more trees than in Germany; Croatia is – relative to the country’s area – about as heavily forested as Austria.
In principle, nobody is excluded from the program, but the prerequisite is that the basic ecological principles mentioned at the beginning are fulfilled and can be proven. This is done by filling out a declaration of honor. In it, individuals, organizations or regional authorities undertake that
- the tree after May 20, 2020,
- not in compliance with legal regulations or requirements and
- is planted in compliance with ecological criteria,
- is not liked for at least “a few decades”, and
- finally, that this promotes biodiversity and the climate.
A method is to be developed by next year to check the plantings and to be able to make this accessible on a website in a transparent manner. The reference time is May 2020.
1500 seedlings per hectare of forest
So far, almost 90,000 trees have been reported. The trees were planted in France, Greece, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
How big is that number really? At first glance, yes: mathematically, there are 3.4 billion trees in Austria’s forests. On closer inspection, however, the number is not that impressive: In all EU countries, 39 percent of the total area is forested – which corresponds to around two million square kilometers – almost 50 times the total domestic forest area. More than 165 billion trees should stand on them.
Planting three billion seedlings would thus correspond to an increase of less than two percent. Assuming that the same number of trees would be planted in each country, this meant that in Austria just 1500 trees would be planted on one square kilometer (= 100 hectares) of forest (in addition to the 100,000 standing trees on this area on average).
3 Billion Trees Pledge
MapMyTree (with interactive map)