New forests for greater climate protection? | DW Documentary

a flock of drones is lifting off carrying thousands of seeds they're on a mission to plant trees and help save the climate in july 2019 researchers at the swiss federal institute of technology eth zurich made global headlines planting trees could help mitigate climate change they said but it would require a huge number of trees to be planted worldwide reforestation covering an area about the size of the united states a massive undertaking but the idea was an appealing one a promise to save the climate with a simple act planting trees but the initial euphoria soon began to ebb critics included scientists who called the idea unrealistic in germany the university of bonn's ike ludling was one of the first scientists to speak out i skipped some iron in their studio there are a number of questions the authors of that study need to address is all of that land actually suited to planting trees they see a lot of potential in the tiger in the tundra in regions that are too cold for trees they want to plant trees in the savanna which is nothing like a forest a savannah has lots of grassland and just a few trees and you have to be realistic the trees would need watering tending to with millions or even billions of new trees who's going to do that works in western australia a huge tree planting project is already underway it's a landscape that isn't exactly welcoming for young saplings the soil is dry the terrain is uneven salinity can be a problem for staff members of the environmental tech startup lord of the trees the work here is a challenge planting trees by hand here would be extremely time consuming that's why david kennett and mahmoud hussein are using drone technology a drone can distribute seeds evenly from the air quickly when it comes to planting trees kennett believes drones are the future it's a great big balancing act you know can we replace the trees faster than people are destroying them this technology that we've developed is going to be fantastic in doing that this is really the future for saving the planet for each patch of land kenneth creates a special mix of seeds but distributing these seeds is just one step towards planting a forest technology is is going to play a big role and just for instance in drones not only do we you know map the area we we you know saw the seeds we monitor but we can actually plant seeds where the human person can't go it's always dangerous for that person to know a drone can sow almost seven thousand seeds an hour a job that would take a human six days david kennett first planted trees here 20 years ago now he's testing various planting methods on different plots of land like many countries australia has been felling woodland to make way for agriculture kenneth says that's a mistake groundwater levels have plummeted a problem for young trees mahmoud this is one of hundreds of varieties of eucalyptus i've got growing on the property yeah and i choose them specifically to be salt tolerant which is important because salinity is such a big problem in this area right and also i like them with large leaves because with the larger the leaves uh the most carbon sequestration takes place to address climate change right so it's a it's a double whammy david kennett only plants trees that are native to australia they're suited to the local land and climate non-native species and monocultures would further damage the soil but even local species don't have it easy here this is a bit of a sad specimen as you can see in my mud it has died it could have died for a variety of reasons unsuitable for the soil type or it could be being completed for nutrients etc from this tree but when we're sowing the seeds that you'll be sewing with your drones we'll be sewing varieties which are particularly suited to the soil type the other good thing with drones is that we can monitor so uh two months later three months later we fly the same flight path right and we can tell how they're progressing oh that is wonderful and we will be able to give you a report which says that particular tree is healthy this one down the road is not this drone is taking off with seeds from a type of acacia tree native to the region this technology could help plant millions of new trees if all goes well a new forest will soon take root here in ireland new forests have already been planted but climate protection isn't the only goal here landowners such as brendan lynch and county litrum want to harvest their trees back in the day lynch's father was able to earn a living from cattle farming but those times are long gone it's not possible to make full-time living out of out of beef production and anymore it's just it's just the income has dropped so much over the past three or four years that it's just not possible without a job to you need to have a job as well as farming lynch has placed his hopes in the fast-growing sitka spruce he's planted five hectares of them on his land the moist rich soil is well suited to the evergreen species well the sitka spruces is the we said the bread and butter really of of the plantations you have to look at the economics of it as well and there's no point in planting something that you can't sell down the line you know in years to come when it's cut down i hope to get anything from eight or nine thousand euros an acre for the timber which is tax-free like brendan lynch thousands of irish farmers have planted spruce trees for harvest the irish government says these plantations are also a boon to the climate but many environmental activists say that's not the case and elitrum citizens initiative agrees they say the monoculture plantations do more harm than good not too long ago adrian kelly's farm was surrounded by spruce trees then the entire plantation was clear-cut practically overnight it was a disaster for the soil ecology and the land now lies fallow but there were problems even before the plantation was clear-cut it was shadow on my land because we are the northern side sean said well out the field there are a good 30 40 meters out the feet so this was had become useless if i wanted to expand the hold and i can't expand because as you can see i can't go south and i can't go east either soon new spruce trees will be planted here for the local activists monoculture plantations are nothing but green washing they're money makers yes but the health of the soil biodiversity and even the beauty of the natural landscape don't factor into the equation you can see here that and it's really a dead zone like nothing grows on the first floor you can see down at our feet that there's like three or four centimeters of pine needles gathered and you can see like you know nothing's alive like look everything is just snapping off dead and nothing nothing lives here it's not a place that we want to come walk in or want to see next to us it's no good for for anybody by the people who are making money the economic arguments don't always hold up monoculture plantations are particularly susceptible to climate change on the plantation belonging to brendan lynch's brother a storm did major damage now the winds come in there on that upper high corner and that's it's a bit of peaty wet ground up there so it seemed they took took that little corner over there the rest of the stand is fairly good it's all standing you know ireland shows that more needs to be done to make the timber industry climate friendly national the disadvantage of monocultures is that they aren't particularly stable ecologically speaking if i plant only one species it's often vulnerable to pests that thrive on that species there are climate stresses like drought in recent years what we've seen is that a forest with a mix of tree species is more resilient different species provide more balance if one's suffering the other might be a bit more robust in germany policymakers are already putting that knowledge into action they're planting trees to help restore healthy mixed deciduous and coniferous forests forests sequester carbon by capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis the trees transform it into biomass mixed forests sequester more carbon than monocultures do [Music] today aika ludling is in a forest southeast of bonn he's carrying out measurements on various trees a tree's height the diameter of its trunk and its age are an indication of how much co2 a tree can remove coniferous trees absorb less co2 than deciduous ones a 40 meter spruce with a trunk that's about 60 centimeters in diameter removes about four tons of co2 from the atmosphere a pine tree of the same size removes only five tons [Music] an oak of similar size removes six tons of co2 and the front runner is the beach at seven tons this is a beech tree i've measured the diameter of this tree at about chest height about 1.3 meters from what was ground level here we have about 2.31 meters for the diameter that would be about so i can look here to see how much biomass that corresponds to about four tons or so and here you can see the corresponding amount of co2 so we can assume that this tree removed something like eight tons of co2 about one third of germany is covered in woodland but the carbon sequestered there only makes up for some seven percent of the country's co2 emissions large old trees are a boon to the climate giant like this beach can remove around 15 tons of co2 but a forest with a mix of young and old trees is most effective finnish if i imagine a forest filled with huge trees like this then of course it seems like it would remove a lot more co2 but of course that's impossible this huge tree doesn't just have a big trunk with lots of carbon in it it also has a huge leaf canopy when you look at the ground here you see what happens near a huge tree like this not a whole lot can grow here dead wood is another important component of a healthy forest when a tree is felled or dies the carbon stays sequestered in the wood for quite some time so it's still climate friendly that's no longer true if the wood is burned the question is what will happen when this wood leaves the forest as long as it stays here the carbon is sequestered it's not a gas it won't seep out overnight if we let it rot the carbon will be released of course but we've got plans for this wood we can make furniture out of it or wooden beams that way the carbon stays sequestered so the overall impact is positive back in australia the focus is on scientific research and the hunt for the perfect future forest at the australian plant bank near sydney emmerich modu wants to figure out which seed mixture works best for drone reforestation projects botanist graham arrington who matches seed mixtures with soils and ecosystems helps the work that we can do by going out and collecting those seeds is helping to understand not so much how we might be able to establish areas as substitutes for forest but to supplement what we have and to assist that biodiversity to maintain itself i think there is a way as well to integrate the two so the two could work together the better suited the seed mixture is to local conditions the more likely it is that trees will thrive but what's the best way to bring a new forest to life emmerich modu and his team are planning to test that in the blue mountains near sydney their strategy is to mimic what would happen in nature when cleared land regenerates trees don't grow right away first come grasses and shrubs we look at the ground cover first yeah before planting trees okay so you wouldn't just plant a tree you have to recreate the whole ecosystem uh by planting um native grasses like we're going to do today on little shrubs you attract small pollinators such as the bees the butterflies these in turn the shrubs flower and bloom have fruits it attracts the birds and when the birds arrive they are the main carrier for after seasons in those landscapes the forest experts want to use drones and special seed capsules to mimic the way birds disperse seeds we selected today those tiny seeds of andy gorfera australis which is a beautiful little shrub that flowers purple when we look and we select the type of seeds that we want to use for a landscape is the topography the rainfall the wind and the salinity of the soil it's time for liftoff each drone will distribute about 120 seeds a minute a prodigious amount when the shrubs start to grow conditions will be ripe for trees to follow but the path from field to forest is a long one [Music] we head to india and the state of chhattisgarh near the city of raipur a large-scale reforestation project is underway india is the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide worldwide the country hopes trees can help change that but reforestation programs here don't always meet with approval the indigenous adavasi people are vocal critics of the government's radical reforestation measures they say that the state is stealing their land planting trees on fields that rightfully belong to indigenous communities my grandfathers and their forefathers lived on this land and farmed it i've already shown my papers to judge nageshwar i farmed this land but now they're digging holes for their plantation this land is our livelihood the rangers are just doing the bidding of the plantation owners there are nearly 800 similar land disputes taking place in india but the state intends to plant forests across a third of its territory nonetheless [Music] forest rangers say the government's policy will create jobs for the adivasi people and benefit the environment india has a lack of forests and that's contributing to global warming monocultures have been recognized as a problem in india that's why the government has switched to mixed forests with fruit and timber trees but the adavasi are determined to fight back the indigenous forestry laws here give them the right to farm the land it's a situation rife with conflict [Music] look at the sesame plant they uprooted it why do that they took our oxen and farming equipment so we planted these with our bare hands and small tools they took everything the ranger keeps denying it he says he took nothing indian authorities built a border fence for their plantation here without asking the permission of the local adavasi community now the forest rangers say the atavasi deliberately destroyed the fence this land was reserved for forests and we were given permission to set up a plantation here land theft reforestation policies that ride roughshod over local communities accusations like these are heard frequently here one thing is certain the tensions between the adivasi people and forestry officials are getting worse the united nations is well aware of this kind of problem climate organizations fund projects that seek to resolve such conflicts but so far these projects have little to show in india or anywhere else the adavasi remain wary over the years they've suffered repression and discrimination and they fear the reforestation programs are not what they claim to be the problem is not that we cut down trees for our farms the real problem is that the rangers clear-cut old forests and give that land to industry they're hollowing out the land from within they're mining the minerals factories and industry are the main reason why the climate is getting hotter and why the seasons are changing so much protect mother earth by farming the topsoil rather than digging it up we saved the core of the earth by only making use of the outer layers [Music] developing nations are being pressured to plant more trees but do state-sponsored reforestation programs ignore the needs of local people ike ludling worries the answer is yes what often happens what's happening right now is that industrialized countries emit endless amounts of co2 and yet somehow we expect developing countries and poor countries to counteract those emissions through reforestation projects when governments decide to go ahead with such projects or when big investors come into play the rights of local people are often ignored and yet our planet desperately needs more trees something that the younger generation has also come to appreciate here in germany young students are planting trees as part of a school project four strangers elizabeth hussing and lars four yan work with the non-profit prima klima association they organized today's project when school children take part in a project like this it has a special impact the ideas really take root over the next years they'll be able to observe what's growing here and they'll develop more respect for nature all that is hugely important and they're having fun they're really into it it's a joy to watch [Music] i hope it will spur them to reflect on things so they don't go to climate demonstrations then stop at mcdonald's on the way home maybe they'll ride their bikes to school those small steps can help make the world a better place and have an impact on their lives that's the most important lesson of allah projects in germany must include a mix of species the children here are planting common oak trees and a birch called the common hornbeam forests in a floodplain like this with the kinds of species we're planting today create one of the most diverse biotopes we have here in europe they're really special the children may not know that yet but over time they'll learn more about it and eventually they'll realize they created something really special that experience will stay with them protecting the climate doesn't always mean planting millions of trees on massive plantations and reforestation can't be a fig leaf for massive carbon emissions it's not a cure-all in the fight against climate change trees can remove huge amounts of co2 but we emit far more than they can ever cope with so trees can't solve our problem to mitigate climate change we'll have to tackle our energy use and our consumer habits in all sorts of ways simply planting trees is not enough to combat climate change but done well reforestation programs are a step in the right direction [Music] you

Channel: DW Documentary

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Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries, documentaries, DW documentary, full documentary, DW, documentary 2021, documentary, co2 emissions, reforestation, trees, climate change, Australia, India

Id: tFQ9BXkm0LI

Length: 25min 56sec (1556 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 27 2022