Post: Beyond Arbor Month: Planting With Intention, Not Just For Attention

September 16, 2025

Beyond Arbor Month: Planting With Intention, Not Just For Attention

Every September, South Africans are called to plant trees. Arbor Month, and especially Arbor Week, is a fixture on the national calendar – a chance to celebrate our natural heritage and the life-giving role that trees play in our ecosystems, cities, and communities. This year, the government continues its strong commitment to greening the nation, with the One Million Trees Campaign serving as a key platform of the National Greening Programme, which aims to plant ten million trees over five years. In Gauteng, the Clean Cities and Towns Campaign, launched in Kliptown, Soweto in June, is actively engaging communities to improve public spaces through cleaning, waste management, and greening initiatives.

These efforts are remarkable, and they come at a pivotal time. South Africa currently holds the G20 Presidency, from December 2024 through November 2025 – just five years before the 2030 deadline of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has warned that progress is lagging, with only 12% of SDG targets on track and more than 30% of goals reversing globally. If we are to meet these ambitious global objectives, a paradigm shift is necessary, and South Africa has a critical opportunity to lead by example.

Yet as we celebrate this momentum, it is essential to reflect not only on the ambition behind national targets, but also on the practical implementation of restoration efforts on the ground. Large-scale tree-planting campaigns are inspiring and raise much-needed awareness. But numbers alone do not guarantee impact. The real measure of success lies in whether trees survive, thrive, and contribute to resilient ecosystems that benefit both people and the planet. In other words, it is time to stop counting trees and start making trees count.

At first glance, tree planting seems like a simple solution to climate change, biodiversity loss, and urban inequality. A million trees, a billion trees, even a trillion trees – the bigger the number, the better the impact, or so the story goes. Yet reality is far more complex. Poorly planned tree planting can backfire. Non-indigenous species, like the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer, have already caused significant damage to urban and natural forests in South Africa. Planting trees in naturally treeless ecosystems – such as grasslands or fynbos – can harm unique biodiversity. And focusing solely on numbers risks creating a false sense of progress, distracting from the more challenging, long-term work of holistic ecosystem restoration.

We cannot afford these mistakes. South Africa is among the most biologically diverse countries in the world, yet many of its ecosystems are fragile and under threat. Restoration efforts must be guided by science, local knowledge, and intentionality. It is not enough to plant trees; we must ensure that each tree contributes to a functioning ecosystem and benefits communities over the long term.

As founder and director of the Greenpop Foundation, I have learned these lessons firsthand. When we began in 2010, our goal was simple: plant 1,000 trees during Arbor Month in under-greened areas of Cape Town. Over twelve years, that initiative grew across Sub-Saharan Africa, and today we have planted close to 200,000 trees in degraded forests, schoolyards, community orchards, and urban spaces in South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia. While we celebrate this milestone, we have also learned that planting trees is never an end in itself. Each tree is a tool – one among many – in the broader work of ecological restoration. Its true value lies in the shade it provides to a schoolyard, the habitat it offers in a recovering forest, the fruit it yields for a rural family, or the water it helps regulate along a riverbank.

This experience has led us to anchor our work in six guiding principles that ensure restoration is meaningful, lasting, and beneficial for both ecosystems and people. These principles are simple in concept but powerful in application.

Six Principles for Meaningful Restoration

First, planting must be done for the right reasons. Trees should serve broader ecological and social objectives, not simply provide material for photographs or publicity. Restoration is about reviving landscapes, improving biodiversity, stabilizing soils, regulating water, enhancing food security, and creating sustainable livelihoods. In practice, this means that tree planting may be combined with other interventions – clearing invasive species, managing natural regeneration, implementing fire management, providing environmental education, or supporting community development initiatives. Success is measured not by the number of spades in the ground but by the measurable improvement in ecosystems and communities.

Second, planting must occur in the right places. Trees do not belong everywhere. Indigenous forests naturally cover only 0.56% of South Africa’s landmass. Our other ecosystems – grasslands, savannas, and fynbos – are equally critical and must not be converted into forests. At Greenpop, we focus our planting efforts on degraded forest patches that cannot recover naturally, farms that benefit from agroforestry practices, and urban and village spaces where trees provide shade, cooling, or windbreaks. Planting in ecologically inappropriate areas risks doing more harm than good.

Third, the right species must be planted. Locally sourced indigenous trees preserve genetic integrity and support the broader ecosystem. In urban areas, species should withstand city stresses while providing benefits such as cooling and air purification. Across all contexts, invasive species are avoided, and careful measures are taken to prevent the spread of pests like the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer. Each tree must be chosen with the long-term health of the ecosystem in mind.

Fourth, restoration requires the right people. It cannot be outsourced entirely to contractors or technology. It must involve communities as co-creators and stewards of the land. Greenpop partners with local organizations across Southern Africa, engages communities from the start, and fosters ownership and stewardship. We collaborate with universities to integrate research and monitoring, and we adopt a pro-community stance: projects are designed to strengthen livelihoods while restoring ecosystems. Restoration succeeds only when it is by the people, for the people.

Fifth, the right impacts must be measured. Planting a tree is only the beginning; survival rates, ecosystem resilience, and community well-being must be tracked over time. Greenpop monitors project sites annually for the first three years and intermittently for up to two decades, tracking biodiversity gains, water quality, soil health, and social impacts. This data informs adaptive management and ensures interventions evolve as challenges arise. Without such rigorous monitoring, campaigns risk becoming symbolic gestures rather than lasting solutions.

Finally, restoration must be supported by the right investment. Planting trees is not cheap, and anyone promising a tree for $1 is oversimplifying a complex challenge. Holistic restoration requires funding for community engagement, monitoring, maintenance, and fair wages. Cutting costs undermines long-term objectives and threatens project success.

Towards a National Framework

These principles could form the foundation for a national framework. With the Climate Change Act now law and South Africa leading as G20 President, the government has an unprecedented opportunity to translate ambitious targets into meaningful action. By moving beyond simple tree counts and embedding these principles into policy, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE) can set a global standard for restoration.

We envision a framework that prioritizes holistic objectives, guides appropriate planting locations, mandates species sourcing standards, strengthens pest management, and ensures robust long-term monitoring and maintenance. Such a framework would safeguard ecological integrity, improve community outcomes, and maximize the climate and social benefits of restoration.

This Arbor Month, thousands of South Africans will plant trees – schoolchildren, corporate volunteers, civil servants. We celebrate this spirit and commitment. But let us also take a moment to think deeply about what success truly looks like. True restoration is measured not in numbers alone, but in thriving ecosystems, empowered communities, and strengthened resilience against climate change…

Source: The Greenpop Foundation