Conservation / Tree Health

In a new global study of more than 46,000 species of trees, an international team of researchers has shown that many tree species are under substantial pressure and poorly protected. The research team, headed by Aarhus University, has also studied how this situation can be improved by means of ambitious and smart designation of new protected natural areas.

Trees play an important role for natural ecosystems, for our climate and for societies across the world. However, recent research shows that many tree species are rare, and are at risk of disappearing.

by Sammy Witchalls

Continuing to plant forest monocultures under carbon offset schemes is not only an inefficient way to mitigate against climate change but it is a missed opportunity to promote biodiversity, adapt against anthropogenic disturbances and provide economic benefits.

by Zhang Nannan, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Xishuangbanna, a tropical–subtropical forest transition, is a key biodiversity hotspot in Southwest of China. However, rapid expansion of rubber plantations in the region increasingly threatens local diversity and there are gaps to be bridged between practical protection and national planning. 

Trees can supply a host of benefits for animals and people, but some trees planted in the tropics may be doing more harm than good. New research finds that 92 percent of new tree plantations planted in the tropics between 2000 and 2012 were in biodiversity hotspots, and 14 percent were in arid biomes, where trees are unlikely to thrive and likely to damage existing ecosystems. Tree plantations had also encroached into 9 percent of accessible protected areas in the humid tropics, such as national parks.

By Study Finds

Earth could be home to 9,000 more species of tree than previously believed, according to scientists. A third of these trees are rare species with a population that is limited in terms of numbers and the size of area they cover, a research team from around the world reports.

By Gabriel Popkin

Some 5400 years ago, about the time humans were inventing writing, an alerce tree (Fitzroya cupressoides) may have started to grow here in the coastal mountains of present-day Chile. Sheltered in a cool, damp ravine, it avoided fires and logging that claimed many others of its kind, and it grew into a grizzled giant more than 4 meters across. Much of the trunk died, part of the crown fell away, and the tree became festooned with mosses, lichens, and even other trees that took root in its crevices.

By Laura Chung

Hidden away on the southern side of an ancient volcano in northern NSW is a unique rainforest that will house 20 rare seedlings of a tree, but whether they will survive as climate change takes hold is in the hands of scientists.

By Helen Briggs

Planting more trees is one of a combination of solutions to combating climate change, but some trees are far better than others. Which ones though? ​​Scientists have designed an experimental forest in England to work out the best formula for achieving ambitious tree planting targets.

By W. John Kress, Gary A. Krupnick

By Alexandra Martins

They are descended from ancestors that lived more than 50 million years ago and have faced all kinds of challenges.

But today they are still standing, but only in one place on the planet.

In the Sierra La Laguna, in the state of Baja California Sur, in northwestern Mexico, lives the only population of a species of oak known as encino arroyero .