Community-driven tree planting greens the neighbouring landscape

Joshua Buxton; Tom Powell; John Ambler; Chris Boulton; Arwen Nicholson; Rudy Arthur; Kirsten Lees; Hywel Williams; Timothy M Lenton

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-96973-6

Community-driven tree planting greens the neighbouring landscape

Sci Rep. 2021 Sep 14;11(1):18239. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-96973-6.

Authors

Joshua Buxton¹, Tom Powell², John Ambler³, Chris Boulton², Arwen Nicholson⁴, Rudy Arthur⁴, Kirsten Lees², Hywel Williams⁴, Timothy M Lenton²

Affiliations

¹ Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK. j.buxton@exeter.ac.uk.
² Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
³ The International Small Group and Tree Planting Program, Vinalhaven, USA.
⁴ Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.

Abstract

Nature-based solutions to climate change are growing policy priorities yet remain hard to quantify. Here we use remote sensing to quantify direct and indirect benefits from community-led agroforestry by The International Small group and Tree planting program (TIST) in Kenya. Since 2005, TIST-Kenya has incentivised smallholder farmers to plant trees for agricultural benefit and to sequester CO₂. We use Landsat-7 satellite imagery to examine the effect on the historically deforested landscape around Mount Kenya. We identify positive greening trends in TIST groves during 2000-2019 relative to the wider landscape. These groves cover 27,198 ha, and a further 27,750 ha of neighbouring agricultural land is also positively influenced by TIST. This positive 'spill-over' impact of TIST activity occurs at up to 360 m distance. TIST also benefits local forests, e.g. through reducing fuelwood and fodder extraction. Our results show that community-led initiatives can lead to successful landscape-scale regreening on decadal timescales.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't