Plant More Native Trees

The NZ Climate Change Commission said: we should plant more native trees. But why plant & regenerate native forests? Does the type of tree matter? Why not just focus on carbon dioxide?

🌲 A lot of the exotic pine being planted is through the emissions trading scheme. Cheap monocultures planted to make money. Under this model looking out for communities, promoting biodiversity and having healthy ecosystems aren’t the main goal.

🌱 Planting and regenerating native forests comes under a different model with biodiversity, ecosystem and social benefits in mind. Plus native forests can provide a more enduring carbon sink.

🌏 More than that .. The health of this earth, it’s forests, it’s ecosystems, it’s people, communities are all connected. If we take care of this earth and stop treating it as a resource to extract from and exploit, we will be much better off.

✨ It‘s putting ourselves above ecosystems that got us into this mess. Continuing to do so will not get us out of it. We have to start changing the narrative.