In Ethiopia, 428,000 hectares of tree cover were lost between 2001 and 2020. This extreme degradation of the country’s forests is due to slash-and-burn agricultural practices, charcoal production, inequitable development, and general overexploitation of forest resources.

The destruction of Ethiopia’s forests has led to major issues for surrounding communities, who rely directly on the land for basic necessities like food, water, and shelter. With 23.5% of Ethiopians living below the poverty line and up to 85% of the workforce engaging in subsistence agriculture is immeasurably important for rural Ethiopian communities.

Focusing on the Dawro zone, this project aims to plant trees across 10,000 hectares. The reforestation will help restore degraded landscapes, increasing water resources and reducing the impact of landslides.

In addition to the huge environmental benefits, the project will also bring much-needed opportunities for long-term economic self-sufficiency for communities experiencing severe poverty.

Although this specific project launched relatively recently, our tree-planting partner, Eden Reforestation Projects, has done incredible work in Ethiopia in the past. Starting in 2005, Eden spent 7 years planting 15 million trees in partnership with local communities and President Hailemariam Desalegn.

Now, returning to Ethiopia, Eden is using nurseries, seed balls, and bare-root planting methods will be used to restore terrestrial forests in a way that supports the region’s forest types and the communities’ needs.

Kenya is famous for its incredible natural landscape, including its diverse wildlife and huge range of forest types. In recent decades, however, Kenya’s forests have been damaged and degraded through charcoal production, logging, and illegal settling. Sadly, 90% of Kenya has been deforested as a result of this environmental degradation.

This project focuses on restoring the 5,000-hectare protected Kijabe Forest. It was once home to 8 permanent rivers and played an essential role in channelling water to communities both nearby and further across the country. Now, only 1 permanent river remains. And as rain becomes more unreliable, landslides have become more common, resulting in deaths, as well as the destruction of infrastructure and livelihood options.

Our tree-planting partner is working alongside a local forest trust, the Kijabe Forest Trust, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, regional and national government institutions, and the surrounding agricultural and pastoral communities to restore the forest. The project aims to re-establish a water supply, restore habitat for wildlife, stabilise steep slopes prone to landslides, and improve economic opportunities.

Right now, the project provides employment and fair wages for over 1,050 people, and over 50 million trees have been produced, planted, and protected.

Honduras is amazingly biodiverse and is home to a huge range of forest types, including Central American montane forests, Central American pine-oak forests, northern mangroves, and Central American dry forests. The rich natural environment provides a home for a huge range of wildlife – some animals native to Honduras literally can’t be found anywhere else on the whole planet, like the Honduran small-eared shrew.

There are dozens of reserves designed to protect the country’s plant and animal life, as well as a whopping 20 national parks. Despite this protection, Honduras has experienced extreme deforestation. Between 1990 and 2005, Honduras had the highest rate of forest decline in the world and lost a horrific 37% of its forests.

This is due in part to uncontrolled logging, which is mostly for international markets, and clearing land for agriculture. Another key factor is that Honduras is one of the world’s biggest producers of palm oil. Even in protected areas, demand for palm oil has led to rapid deforestation. In recent years, wildfires and pine beetle infestations have also caused enormous damage to the nation’s forests.

This reforestation project focuses on restoring and conserving more than 12,000 hectares of forest across La Tigra and Uyuca. Deforestation hasn’t just damaged the environment – it’s also had a devastating impact on surrounding communities, limiting access to natural resources and making it much harder for communities to live off the land.

By employing local workers and providing fair wages, the project has created sustainable economic opportunities for extremely marginalised communities. So far, over 190 people are employed in this project, and an amazing 4 million trees have been planted.

It has been estimated that over 80% of Madagascar's original forests are gone, with half of this loss happening after the late 1950s.

This project provides training and financial support for the local community to plant dry deciduous trees and mangroves with the help of national, tribal, and local governments.

The project provides training and financial support to the local community to collect mangrove propagules and strategically plant millions of trees in coastal systems and upland dry deciduous forests that have been heavily degraded or deforested.

Antsanitia Mangrove Site:

This mangrove estuary needs long-term protection and regeneration. The site is on the northwest coast of Madagascar, 15 miles north of the regional capital of Mahajanga. The deep-water mangrove estuary is home to a whole host of different species of fish and animals, including barracuda, stingray, and mangrove snapper. It is also an essential fishery for shrimp, crab, and shellfish and provides habitat to several different species of birds as well. Charcoal production and illegal wood harvesting (both of which the government and local Malagasy communities are opposed to) mean that the estuary is being destroyed and is dwindling scarily quickly. This project aims to empower local communities to get their beautiful mangrove estuaries back to their former glory and protect what’s left through strategic reforestation.

Maputo Bay Reforestation Project:

The Maputo Bay Reforestation Project started in 2018, in order to bring back vitality to the forests that were being destroyed lining the rivers in the Maputo Bay.

Not only does reforesting the mangroves here help bring back and increase biodiversity, it also provides employment opportunities and livelihood improvements to the local community.

In response to the large-scale loss of mangroves in Mozambique, onHand’s tree planting supports the Maputo Bay Reforestation Initiative with a vision to bring back the vitality of the forests that fringe the rivers and coastline of Maputo Bay in southern Mozambique. The project supports local communities to plant and manage mangrove forests, offers long-term employment and livelihood improvements to local communities while protecting the important biodiversity that relies on mangrove forests to survive. The program began in October 2018 with two planting sites near Maputo and has now expanded to many planting sites in Maputo Bay.

The benefits of the work include helping protect coastal communities from environmental disasters, improving fisheries, removing carbon from the atmosphere, and increasing biodiversity while also addressing the urgent need for poverty alleviation and women's empowerment.

The Djabissa mangrove reforestation project is located south of Maputo, Mozambique, along a large channel that leads to the Maputo Bay. Before starting the project, the mangrove forests found in this area were severely impacted by deforestation and forest degradation from charcoal production and wood collection for cooking, construction, and other purposes. onHand supports planting to this project to reforest this massive mangrove estuary.

Nepal is a diverse nation with magnificent snowcapped mountains to the north and hot tropical planes to the south and contains dramatic and varied landscapes and spectacular wildlife. Chitwan National Park alone hosts more than 700 species of wildlife, including leopards and the elusive Bengal tiger.

It is also home to various cultures united by their close relationship with nature that has remained insulated from much of the socioeconomic development enjoyed in urban regions yet are subject to far greater environmental hazards, perpetuating high inequality levels.

The Nepal Reforestation Project started in 2014 to help improve local livelihoods and restore forests in areas of critical importance. The planting sites are located around Community Forests from the mountainous regions to the lowland alluvial plains and around Chitwan National Park to develop a buffer zone around this national biodiversity treasure.

In 2019 a new reforestation site in the Kaski District in the City of Pokhara in Central Nepal was started. The project consists of several planting sites within the city limits covering approximately 300 hectares.

The project aims to support local communities and bring back the forest in this scenic high-elevation city that is the gateway to the Great Himalaya Range. The Kaski District occupies 2017 sq Km, of which 41% is covered with forest, and harbors the richest biodiversity in Nepal.

Pokhara hosts a population of 402,995 and is the second-largest city in terms of population in Nepal after Kathmandu. It is known as the 'City of Lakes' because of the nine lakes found in its valley. These lakes and their abundant wetlands have recognized internationally because they host to a wide variety of globally threatened migratory birds and mammals.

Over half of the workforce involved in this project are women helping support gender inequality in the region. For many its the first time they have had consistent employment

The Haiti Reforestation Project restores tree cover by planting agroforestry systems that protect watersheds and improve food security. The project equips local farmers with the training, tools and trees needed to design their plots, grow, and care for their own trees, and increase the food production and biodiversity of their farms.

The project works to change the approach to growing food by introducing agroforestry systems containing a diversity of fruit and nut trees combined with those that provide timber, fuelwood, and habitat values. A large-scale mangrove restoration initiative was also launched in 2020

The program includes training local farmers to effectively cultivate land in highland regions that respond poorly to intensive agriculture and are best suited for agroforestry applications. By doing so, the Haiti Reforestation Project helps stabilize the land, increases soil fertility, and increases food production that can be sold domestically and internationally to increase household income while bringing back the natural ecological function to a highly degraded landscape.

Belanger Site Project

This area suffers from extremely high rates of deforestation, drought, and poverty. The agroforestry program supported is bringing this area back to life. The project partners with local farmers to plant agroforestry trees such as orange (Citrus sinensis), moringa (Moringa oleifera), mango (Mangifera indica), and cocoa (Theobroma cacao) to expand and diversify food production and improve food security for the local population.

The long answer is – it depends.

The short answer is – A mangrove tree sequesters an estimated 0.3 tonnes of CO2 over its growth life. How do we know this? Well, let’s delve into the long answer.

To explain how much carbon a tree sequesters, let’s first understand how a tree absorbs carbon in the first place.

Trees sequester carbon through the process of photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is where plants take energy from sunlight and turn it into energy for respiration, growth and reproduction – allowing them to stay alive.

To do this, trees absorb CO2 from the air, water from the soil and light from the sun, and turn these into glucose and energy.

And, since trees are known for being pretty big and having an enviable lifespan, trees absorb a lot of carbon dioxide, which is why they’re a powerful tool for carbon sequestration and the fight against climate change.

The amount of carbon dioxide a tree absorbs varies tremendously, depending on:

A small tree in your back garden absorbs a lot less carbon dioxide than a deep-rooted, broadleaf tree in a perfect climate. But it’s still absorbing carbon dioxide, and that’s important to remember.

Is carbon dioxide a bad thing? Not always.

However, if you’re planting trees to help in the fight against climate change, you want a tree that’s going to sequester a lot of CO2.

Scientific studies have found that Mangroves sequester carbon 2 – 4 times greater than mature tropical forests and contain the highest carbon density of all terrestrial ecosystems (Fatoyinbo et al, 2017). How much carbon dioxide is that?

Our tree planting partner has worked hard to establish the average amount of CO2 absorbed by a mangrove forest as 308kg (0.3 tonnes) of CO2 per tree.

With an average tree grow life of 25 years, a hectare of mature mangrove forest absorbs 840 metric tonnes. This means that one mangrove tree removes 308kg (0.3 tonnes) of CO2 from the atmosphere over its growth life, which is 12.3kg per year.

Well, 0.3 tonnes per tree is the same as:

How did we get to this calculation?

First, they calculated the ratio of CO2 to carbon, based on the atomic weights of each molecule, which comes to 3.67.

This ratio was multiplied by the amount of carbon per hectare of mangrove forest to come to the amount of CO2 absorbed per hectare of mangrove forest, which comes to 308kg.

This figure was divided by the number of trees planted in a hectare of mangrove forest (1,000), which comes to 0.3.

We’ve researched many sources on how much carbon a tree sequesters and the figures vary, a lot. This is understandable because different trees sequester different amounts.

Some scientists might believe this figure should be higher, others might think it should be lower, but we felt it’s a valid figure, and an average is better than no average at all. Our key priority is to help the planet by planting more trees.

It’s also important to remember that tree planting brings tonnes of other benefits too, including:

We, along with our tree planting partners, believe that mangrove trees are one of the best trees for sequestering carbon emissions. This is because they sequester a large amount of carbon, they have an extensive root system that allows them to thrive in muddy coastal areas (Komiyama et al, 2008), and they’re also cost-effective to grow and maintain – making them more likely to survive and people more likely to plant them, which is what we all want.

Of course, there are many different trees good at absorbing CO2 and, studies have shown that each additional tree species introduced to a plantation can add 6% to its carbon sequestration figures.

We adopted an average figure of 0.3 tonnes of carbon per tree to make it easier for businesses and people to put a figure on how much CO2 that tree could go on to sequester. We could get into the ifs and buts of how much carbon a tree sequesters, but we believe the easier it is for people to understand the benefits of tree planting and do it themselves, the better.

It’s a great question. A newly planted tree will go on to sequester (or absorb) CO2 emissions over its growth life, which we hope will be many, many years.

A carbon offset comes from CO2 avoidance or capture that has already taken place – i.e. a completed wind turbine project or a 15-year-old tree. Carbon offsets are designed for businesses to attribute existing offsets again business emissions.

Growth Rates, Life Cycles & Survival Rates

In general our tree planting partner is able to achieve an 80-85% successful survival rate. This is dependent on a number of factors including severe weather conditions such as flooding and hurricanes caused by climate change.

Our mangrove locations currently see an 80% success rate and after 3-5 years the mangroves start to produce their own propagules (baby mangrove trees) resulting in a proliferation of natural regeneration.

The growth rate of a Mangrove is 25 years. There is little data around their life cycle but it is thought that they live for over 100 years.