For people

It’s probably not news that trees are good at reducing air pollution. You may be interested to hear how good. Every 10% increase in green space is associated with a reduction in diseases equivalent to an increase of five years of life expectancy.

Put simply, the greener your local area is, the longer the people in your community can expect to live. And, more than a quarter of modern medicines originate from tropical forest plants, so we need trees for many reasons.

For planet

The world's established forests remove 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon per year from the atmosphere, equivalent to one third of current annual fossil fuel emissions.

There are many international tree planting efforts in the works, including the Bonn Challenge where 59 countries have agreed to restore 150 million hectares of forest by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. Whilst many experts agree that trees are the most effective way to capture carbon, they also stress that trees should not be considered as the only solution to climate change.

The solution is in reducing our carbon consumption by phasing out fossil fuels whilst protecting existing forests and healthy soils.

Planting new trees is helpful, but protecting mature trees and forests is better. Forests are home to over 80% of the earth’s land biodiversity.

Oak trees alone support 2,300 species of plants and animals – 326 of which are entirely dependent on oak for their survival. The UK's woodland is home to a whole ecosystem of plants, delicate fungi, nesting birds, elusive mammals and rare insects.

Ancient woodland supports more species than any other land-based habitat in the UK. Native woods and trees support a fifth of the UK's Priority Species for conservation. Planting the right kind of trees is important. One-third of all woodland wildlife species are in decline due to habitat loss, so new trees must be native and new forests should include different tree species to support healthy biodiversity.

Tree roots store up to 60 times more water in the ground. Useful skills in these climate change days as it reduces flooding and lessens the impact of wildfires. The leaves of trees also reduce flooding. Rain hits the tree instead of falling directly to the ground which spreads the effect of the rainstorm over a longer time period. It allows up to an impressive 30% of the water to evaporate back into the atmosphere, without even touching the ground. In urban areas replacing asphalt with green space and trees could drastically reduce run-off by up to 80%. Meanwhile, trees, shrubs and deadwood along riverbanks and on floodplains act as a drag on flood waters, slowing the flow at times of flooding.Offsetting some of your carbon by paying organisations to plant trees on your behalf isn’t a bad idea, as long as you’re reducing your carbon consumption alongside. There are some great companies doing this.

Beware "mitigation deterrence" where promises of cheap and easy CO2 removal make it less likely we will change our behaviour to reduce our carbon footprint and in fact guarantees that we continue to emit carbon. The market can’t guarantee CO2 removals will match our emissions as, for example, trees might be planted and subsequently lost to wildfire or logging. Choose your offsetter carefully, as trees may never be planted at all.