But the effort should not be so quickly discounted. Fighting climate change is only a small part of the story. There are many other good reasons to plant trees, especially in the tropics. Floresta, a reforestation ministry for the poor directed by Scott Sabin, began planting trees nearly 25 years ago, when deforestation was understood as a major contributor to rural poverty. The link between trees and poverty may seem obscure at first, but there is a remarkable connection between the two.

Farmers working at or near the subsistence level still make up a huge proportion of the world’s population. Among the poorest of the poor, they lag in almost every area of human development. Their soil and their water, their only assets, are dependent upon the health of their watershed. Trees are vital for preventing soil erosion, and help build soil by fixing nitrogen, bringing buried nutrients to the surface, and contributing leaf litter and other organic matter to the soil.

Water availability and quality are also dependent on the health of the forest. Absence of trees results in a decrease in local rainfall. This is magnified by the fact that when the rain does fall, there is little to stop it from running off before it is able to soak into the ground.  Water is able to infiltrate and replenish local aquifers where the soil is protected by a canopy of trees to break the fall of precipitation, leaf litter to slow runoff, and roots to increase soil permeability. If the water does not soak in, the water table will drop and the local environment will become drier. Where the land has been stripped of trees, a desert is soon created 

Trees also act as filters. There is a direct correlation between deforestation and a number of infectious diseases. As firewood becomes scarcer and its collection costs more time and money, people are less likely to boil their water or even adequately cook their food, increasing health risk.

Ultimately, deforestation is one of the root causes of rural emigration, as people leave the unproductive countryside in hope of a job in the overcrowded cities, or in the United States. One of the reasons that Foresta began planting trees and working with poor farmers in the state of Oaxaca ten years ago was the realization that much of the immigration issues in Southern California was rooted in declining opportunities in the mountains of Oaxaca.

But land can become productive again. At Floresta we have seen rivers and streams restored, and farm productivity dramatically increase. Families, split by lack of opportunity and illegal immigration, have the opportunity to stay together. God’s plan of redemption and restoration can be graphically demonstrated as we work together with the poor to reclaim degraded lands.

By all means let’s make the big lifestyle changes to reduce carbon emissions. But let’s plant trees, too. And make sure that the organization you are working with is doing more than merely sticking trees in the ground. By finding an organization that is working in collaboration with the poor to plant trees and restore degraded lands, your tree planting can do much more than assuage your guilt. It can literally give sustenance and health to God’s children.

Contact: www.floresta.org
Floresta USA
4903 Morena Blvd, Suite 1215
San Diego, California 92117
(858) 274-3718
(800) 633-5319