Investing in trees: multinational corporations are protecting and restoring forests around the world.

 Nature-loss threatens $44 trillion, or over half of world GDP.

Over 85 companies have pledged to investing in trees by saving, repairing, and cultivating over 8 billion trees in 65 countries.

The global aim of conserving, restoring, and growing 1 trillion trees is ambitious yet attainable.

The global impact of tree restoration.

Companies from many industries are collaborating through the World Economic Forum's 1t.org initiative, which supports the global campaign to save, restore, and grow one trillion trees by 2030. In over 65 nations, more than 85 firms have agreed to plant over 8 billion trees. New promises from firms all across the world, including Ant Group, Hanwha, and Adani, were welcomed this year.

Through the 1t.org Corporate Alliance, organisations collaborate. Member companies agree to invest in their communities and forests, as well as to meet a Paris Agreement-aligned carbon reduction target. The Corporate Alliance pulls corporations together to work towards a common objective of environmental protection and sustainability, and it connects businesses with 1t.org's community of innovators, partners, and regional chapters.

Companies from a variety of industries, including mining and automobile manufacture, are investing in forest protection and restoration. Meta has collaborated with the National Indian Carbon Coalition (NICC) to ensure that carbon-reduction programmes integrate Indigenous peoples' leadership, traditional ecological knowledge, and vision. Mahindra has also committed to planting more than one million trees every year through its Project Hariyali effort, and has already planted more than 20 million trees. Its goal is to construct functional forests for local communities in order to improve smallholder and marginal farmer livelihoods while recovering forest ecosystems. This approach is consistent with the World Economic Forum's efforts to encourage firms to employ Indigenous knowledge in landscape conservation and restoration.

What is the world forest's greatest challenge?

Forests are vital to the planet's health. They operate as flood barriers, sequester carbon, regulate global temperatures and freshwater flows, recharge groundwater, anchor rich soil, and sequester carbon. They are home to 80% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity, provide habitat for numerous species, and supply food for 350 million people.

Forest degradation and loss are causing global instability on a scale unmatched in human history. We have lost approximately half of the 6 trillion trees that existed before agriculture began 12,000 years ago. Every year, we lose almost $15 billion more.