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Air Quality and Trees: A Brief Tutorial and Reminder that It’s All ‘Here’

Given all the outdoor event cancellations and AQI reports being tossed around these days we felt it a good time to revisit what these numbers actually mean.  And no surprise what our conclusion will be: planting the right trees in the right place in the right manner at the right time will help the situation.  […]

A Second Round of Mangrove Seedlings at Pangani Nursery #2

ForestPlanet is back in action at Pangani Mangrove Nursery #2, or PN2, a proven operation on the banks of the Pangani River in Tanzania’s Tanga Region. We’ve just started another 200,000 seedlings in this tried-and-true area. It’s familiar ground: PN2 has already produced over 400,000 healthy seedlings, all of them outplanted into nearby sites. This […]

Urgent Optimism at ForestPlanet

There’s a quiet epidemic spreading through conversations about climate change: the belief that it’s already too late.  That the scale of the problem has outrun our capacity to solve it. Data scientist Hannah Ritchie has a word for this: doomerism. And in a recent Big Think video, she dismantles it methodically.  Her argument isn’t cheerful […]

Fast Forward: 25,000 Trees Go to their “Forever Homes” 

Remember Esther and her fruiting tree nursery? The last time we blogged about Esther was back in September when her seedlings were off to a great start. Now we are thrilled to provide a project update to share the meaningful impact it is having in Esther’s community in the village of Pangani, Tanzania. Real Impact, […]

Nearly Halfway There and Still Spot On: Kurt Vonnegut’s Letter to Humanity (with Trees in Mind)

In 1988, author Kurt Vonnegut wrote a letter addressed to Earth’s citizens one hundred years in the future. He imagined a world where “Nobody will have to leave home to go to work or school… Everybody will sit around all day punching the keys of computer terminals connected to everything there is.” Nearly halfway to […]

Update from The Mlesa Spring: Taller Trees = More Water

As previously reported here, the Irente planting site in the Usambara Mountains region of northern Tanzania spreads across 2,200 hectares.  There are one million trees here, but there is need to get another two million trees planted in this area as soon as possible. As part of this initiative, our partners planted 69,000 trees in […]

“How do we know the trees you plant won’t get cut down after you leave?”

It’s one of the most common—and most important—questions we get. The short version is this: we never “leave” because we never “arrive” in the first place. Our approach at ForestPlanet is not to swoop into a community, plant trees, and move on. Instead, we work with existing local initiatives—projects started and led by community members […]

Peirce Mill Update #5 – It’s All About the Soil. And the People.

We love our work at ForestPlanet. But we rarely get to play in the dirt and care for the trees. Our day-to-day work is mostly about raising money to buy trees, planning individual tree planting projects, communicating with our local partners overseas, and the sundry tasks of running a small non-profit. So we cherish our […]

Esther’s New Job: Growing a Greener Future for her Neighbors **Updated With Photos**

At ForestPlanet, we approach reforestation like a business – with strategic, long-term investments. But instead of quarterly profits, our return comes in the form of healthier ecosystems and thriving communities.  Our first consideration is the needs of the local people.  What will motivate them to meaningfully engage in reforestation long after we are gone? Fortunately […]

Forests and Foods: How ForestPlanet Supports People and the Environment

The International Day of Forests theme for this year, “Forests and Foods,” highlights the essential role forests play in food security, nutrition, and livelihoods.  At ForestPlanet, we have long recognized that human well-being is deeply intertwined with the health of our forests. When people struggle, deforestation accelerates. When communities thrive, reforestation efforts can flourish. To […]