Real-Life Forestation Success Stories
Inspiring Stories About Individuals and Organizations Who Benfited Their Communities
This page contains 3rd-party links to inspiring videos and web pages with real-life stories of how relatively ordinary people made a big difference in each of their local areas through forestation techniques.
Many of these links provide proof of how these techniques have a powerful impact on local water tables, resulting in an astounding water increase for plants, animals, and farming.
Each of these resources describes how trees, shrubs, animals, and ground management systems all work together to create an overall healthy forest system.
Navadarshanam Story
India: An Ecosystem Returned to Abundance
The Navadarshanam Organization purchased 100 acres of land and allowed a healthy forest to regrow on it's own over 26 years. The water table improved dramatically, even during years with little rain.
Sebastião Salgado Story
Brazil: From Dried-Out Landscape to Revitalized Forest
Growing up Sebastião saw his home transformed into a dry, lifeless landscape. Returning years later, he planted countless trees. The forest grew back, over 230 plant and animal species returned, and the streambeds flow with water again.
Caladonian Forest Story
Scotland: Allowing an Ancient Forest to Heal
Ancient Scotland used to be heavily forested until red deer and sheep were introduced to the landscape. Now anything new that tries to grow is grazed down to a few centimeters. Alan Watson Featherstone describes how fencing off areas allows the natural forest ecosystem to return on it's own. He also elaborates on how a healthy forest ecosystem should look.
Green Desert Story
Jordan: Setting an Example With a Desert Oasis
A two-part story describing how sustainable soil creation systems can revitalize a completed degraded landscape, trap moisture, and become self perpetuating. During the drought of 2008 the new project's olive trees bear fruit, while the rest of the country's trees are unable to.
Hinewai Story
New Zealand: Working With Gorse to Regrow the Forests
A passionate man works for years to turn old, useless farmland back into naturtal forests, abundant with trees, flowing streams, and wildlife. He works with gorse (broom) to allow nature to take it's course and heal the land naturally.
Peter Andrews Story
Australia: Soaking a Dry Landscape With Water
Peter imagines his farm can be returned to the water-rich state that the Australian landscape used to be in. He uses stream obstruction techniques along with trees and shrubs to make this dream a reality. His techniques allow water to soak into the stream banks and hydrate the land around it, producing vibrant ecosystems.
Haiti Forest Story
Haiti: Rebuilding the Forests and Building a Thriving Community
The Haiti Reforestation Partnership has been working with local communities to plant forests for over 30 years. The organization plants some trees for forests and others for farmland: both methods restore the land and empower locals to make a good living for themselves and provide hope for future generations.
Kokota Forestation Story
Tanzania: Caring for an Islet With New Forestation Practices
The local population of Kokota Islet were suffering from lack of water and little economic activity. A local man teamed up with a Canadian to create a program to reforest over 300,000 trees for the island. This created a new, sustainable economy and brought hope to the people.
Lilengo Story
Burkina Faso: Bringing Trees and Water Back to a Dried Out Landscape
During 1970's droughts cattle died in the millions in this region of Africa. Years later, a group of European entrepreneurs created a program in Lilengo to plough the land and plant sustainable working forests. The locals now have an economy, have greatly improved their lifestyles, and are sending more of their children to school each year.
John D. Liu Story
Global: Bringing An Understanding of the Value of Forestation to the World
John D. Liu is an experienced videographer who is best known for his filming of the Loess Plateau rehabilitiation, where the Chinese conducted a large scale reforestation program. In this video, John elaborates on the reforestation lessons he has learned and shares success stories from around the world.