Each year, the 21st of March marks the International Day of Forests. A day instated by the United Nations to raise awareness of the importance of forests across the world.
This year, the theme is “forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being”. This theme acknowledges the significance of the Earth’s forests and the role that their restoration plays in the health of our planet, the health of us and the health of future generations.
In celebration of this day, we are sharing what the International Day of Forests means to Greenfleet and how our work ties in with this year’s theme.
Greenfleet has been planting native trees in Australia for over 23 years where we have created more than 500 forests. More recently we have also extended our operations into New Zealand. We focus on planting native, endemic species to build resilient and biodiverse forests that will grow beyond this century. While we are focussed on protecting our climate by capturing carbon from the atmosphere, our forests do much more than that.
From improving the health of our soils, to building biodiverse ecosystems and creating habitat for our precious wildlife, our forests play a very important role in providing environmental benefits to the areas in which they grow.
In some instances, our work provides benefits in unexpected ways too. For example, our restoration work in Victoria’s South Gippsland is protecting the habitat of the rare and wonderful Giant Gippsland Earthworm – a species rarely seen above the ground.
Our forests are also home to beloved native wildlife like Koalas. In South-East Queensland, Koala Crossing is growing with tens of thousands of trees that are connecting wildlife corridors and providing habitat for the region’s vulnerable koala populations.
Due to the large scale of our work, Greenfleet’s operations are generally undertaken in remote and rural communities. This means we are able to provide employment opportunities through the work done in site preparation, the sourcing of seeds and seedlings and the planting of our forests. In fact, each year Greenfleet invests about $1 million regionally to continue our work.
These are just a handful of ways in which our forests play vital roles in helping tackle climate change while providing environmental and social benefits that help us and our native wildlife. We also protect our trees for up to 100 years to ensure they can continue doing this for decades to come.
With over 9.6 million trees already planted, we look forward to continuing to take climate action through native reforestation and helping to restore the forests of Australia and New Zealand.
Read more about the International Day of Forests here and watch this year’s video below.
