How farmers in Earth's least developed country grew 200 million trees

Auroville is home to foresters, ecologists, and other conservation advocates working on various reforestation efforts like propagating tropical dry evergreen forest species and planting drought-resistant species. Today, community-run nurseries supply about 50,000 saplings a year for tree-planting projects in Auroville. There are also “forest groups” made up of local residents who plant native species, collectively planting more than half a million evergreen saplings of over 200 different species.

Mangroves are biodiverse growths that provide a variety of benefits to coastal regions including food security, a breeding ground for various species and protection from erosion and storms along the coast. Previously destroyed by deforestation, efforts to regrow mangroves are a cost-effective solution to climate change.

The Clean Green initiative empowers Yezidi women who escaped the 2014 ISIS genocide to rebuild their lives and enviornment by planting more than 2,000 trees, specifically chosen to withstand Iraq’s shifting climate. The grassroots group started with just five volunteers, but now has more than 40 members.

Nairobi is using a unique restoration technique called the Miyawaki method to restore local ecosystems by creating forest islands in urban areas that have lost their green spaces. Since 2007, this reforestation method has established mini forests in three regions throughout the city, as the project has planted over 236,212 seedlings.

In Brazil's Amazon deforestation hotspot BR-163, small farmers and entrepreneurs are working to implement sustainable farming alternatives like agroecology, beekeeping and converting cattle pastures to grow local fruits to create a “bioeconomy,” despite a lack of institutional support.

The Nevada Irrigation District is restoring meadows, and therefore their carbon-sequestering abilities, in the Sierra Nevada mountains that were degraded by humans through things like building dams and mining.

For two decades, the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds has restored native trees on ​​São Miguel Island to increase the food and nesting habitat available for the Azores bullfinch. As a result, the population of the bird increased enough to be downlisted from critically endangered to vulnerable.

The nonprofit Africa Research Association Managing Development teaches communities in Obanliku, Nigeria, to run their own businesses in things like gardening, soap making, and marketing, and helps establish cocoa cooperatives to keep them from depending on deforestation for income. The program also requires communities to designate parts of the forest for conservation and trains members to protect those areas.

With support from the local government, a community-based program in the Philippines trains residents in mangrove reforestation, then teaches them how to sustainably manage the marine ecosystem. The program also helps them find livelihoods that don’t involve cutting the mangroves down.

Sagebrush in Prisons Project allows incarcerated people to restore sagebrush, a threatened plant that plays a crucial role in U.S. ecosystems. The program provides opportunities for incarcerated adults to cultivate team building and horticulture skills, hone an interest in ecology, and improve employability outside of the prison system.