Jane Goodall pledges one trillion trees by 2030 in Africa's Sahel

Spending years in the forests of Uganda's Gombe National Park, Jane Goodall has previously spoken of her "spiritual connection" to trees. Now the famous conservationist is launching one of the most ambitious reforestation plans to date.

Trees for Jane has pledged to plant one trillion trees by 2030 to battle global climate change.

As part of the UN's Climate Action Week, the United Nations ambassador for peace has spoken of trees as "God's gift to humanity." However, to reach such an ambitious target, she won't be working alone.

The Trees for Jane project will be part of 1t.org, in support of the UN's Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

More than pleasing alliteration, the goal of planting 128 trees per-person on the planet is a carefully chosen target.

Last year a Swiss study by ETH Zurich estimated that 1.2 trillion trees would be enough to counter for the decade's worth of carbon emissions.

As we face existential crises of #climatechange +#biodiversityloss, Dr. Goodall looks to forests as one of our greatest hopes. Jane is proud to introduce @treesforjane new campaign part of #JanesGreenHope @1t_org Learn more & get involved: https://t.co/gsUGFrXooh #TreesforJane pic.twitter.com/EnyyUxQp0g

— Dr. Jane Goodall & the Jane Goodall Institute (@JaneGoodallInst) September 21, 2021

A film titled A Trillion Trees, released this week Goodall explains the goals of the project using low-tech re-planting.

"I know that a trillion sounds like an insane number," Jeff Horowitz, Trees for Jane's co-founder told the National Geographic. "We're not saying flat out that we'll be able to succeed, but we want to come as close as we can."

Focused on Africa's tropical Sahel region also known as the "Great Green Wall", much of the planting in a 100 million hectare region of lost forest. At the edge of the Sahara, it is a region that has seen desertification and loss of livelihood and climate-driven conflict.

The planting will be delivered in partnership with the African Union Commission.

However, not everybody has jumped on the tree-planting train.

A study by Stanford University's earth sciences faculties suggested that unless done carefully, planting has the power to do more harm than good.

"If policies to incentivise tree plantations are poorly designed or poorly enforced, there is a high risk of not only wasting public money but also releasing more carbon and losing biodiversity," read the study published in Nature Sustainability, last June.

An investigation by the Economist suggested that international planting projects are an excuse for polluters to 'palm-off' their problem on another country.

In the 'The Trouble With Trees' the magazine explained how countries were shirking Paris Accord targets, instead outsourcing them to international campaigns. From a 20 per cent reduction pledge, Ireland has only reduced 5 per cent at home, with the rest being bought as international carbon credits.

While large planting projects in the Sahel, India and elsewhere will require careful monitoring to make sure that they are not damaging the remaining ecosystems, or failing to account for net carbon costs through cultivation.

Jane of the Jungle remains adamant that forests are the cheapest and most effective way to offset climate change, which is an immediate problem.

"The climate crisis is affecting all life on earth. You don't have to be a scientist to understand," she said in a statement for the Trees for Jane campaign.

"We have no time to lose."