Talk:Afforestation

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

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Untitled

I believe afforestation can also be the process of natural regeneration of a forest.

To illustrate, wouldn't the natural succession of previous farming land, no longer used, fall back into it's natural habitat? e.g. Previous farmland in eastern Europe, now abandoned due to sharp rises in urban immigration, has caused natual afforestation to occur.

Wouldn't that be reforestation? --Ziusudra 23:35, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

steps of afforestation —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.49.174 (talk) 07:49, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Article needs more diverse geographical coverage and more sources

I shall try to attend to these goals. Help welcomed. Cewvero (talk) 03:19, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Given that environmentalism is such a hotly debated topic, and detractors often dismiss it as political, is it wise to prominently feature a picture of Stalin? It's a pretty neat picture that actually tells an interesting story, but I can already hear the comments.

Aargauer (talk) 19:19, 2 September 2009 (UTC)Aargauer

Agreed. It has a several unfortunate implications: 1) That Stalin was in some major way concerned with the Russian ecology (or of anywhere else), 2) That afforestation is specially connected with the 20th century, 3) That afforestation necessarily involves governments or grand campaigns needing posters.

The existing article material has room for major improvement. No world view is given, and the countries that are mentioned are not necessarily typical or the most important. There's no discussion of the success and failure of past projects, in fact, almost no historical perspective at all. For example, for centuries the British groomed forests to produce the specially branched trees needed to produce appropriately shaped wood for fighting ships.

The difference between reforesting and afforesting is tricky. Does it mean that people just don't remember when some land was ever forest, or that a forest was never in given the current the soil and climate conditions.

This Nov 2009 article in "Nature" suggests there are negative effects to afforestion, too.[1]

The article could easily be four times as long. At 4500+ views per month, it's a fairly well read article. The time would be well-invested. Piano non troppo (talk) 13:26, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

One tactic theUS government uses to differentiate between land that has been previously forested, vs land that has not recently had a forest is land deeds Sophiafine (talk) 06:29, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

References

Af/Re- forestation

Seems to me that this article is primarily about reforestation, not afforestation. Yes admittedly it's a tricky distinction but I came here looking for information on afforestation, not reforestation. And yes there are negatives to afforestation as well as positives, ie afforestation can extirpate species that need more open habitat, and technical difficulties getting trees to grow where they weren't growing before - if there wasn't already a forest there, it's often because trees don't want to grow there for one reason or another. Those would be important topics to go into some depth on.Dog Walking Girl (talk) 04:18, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

I agree but do not have time to fix it. Can anyone help? Chidgk1 (talk) 06:52, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

This article sheds afforestation in a primarily positive light. Another example of a potentially threatening impact of afforestation is its impact on the water cycle. Transpiration performed by the newly planted trees can impact the water cycle in ways that are difficult to predict, but can adversely affect the hydrology of an area. Dry environments are especially susceptible to these impacts.Increased transpiration can decrease water levels in streams/rivers which can cause water scarcity and have agricultural implications. Sophiafine (talk) 06:14, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

References

The Great Green Wall (Sahel)

While I don't have time to add this myself, I think it would make sense to include the planned great green wall, which (if successful) would cover the entire southern fringe of the Sahara, especially as it has its own wikipedia page too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Green_Wall

Good idea. I've now added this.

Gareth.randall (talk) 09:18, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

afforestation

Afforestation: Meaning, Importance and Current Efforts Meaning: Afforestation is the effort to plant trees in barren lands so as to create a forest. It is important because it helps check the over-use of natural resources by providing an alternative source pool. Learn more about the process here. What is Afforestation?

Afforestation is the process of planting trees, or sowing seeds, in a barren land devoid of any trees to create a forest. The term should not be confused with reforestation, which is the process of specifically planting native trees into a forest that has decreasing numbers of trees. While reforestation is increasing the number of trees of an existing forest, afforestation is the creation of a ‘new’ forest.

Our Earth has been constantly trying to cope with the way in which human beings use natural resources, clear forest lands, cut trees, and contaminate the air, land, and water. Industrial revolution, population bursts, and pollution create permanent damage to the earth, and the result is global warming and climate change. In such situations,something that can help extend the life of the planet and its living organisms is the increase of natural resources and decrease of exploitation of these resources.

By planting trees and creating forests, many of the commercial needs of human beings are fulfilled, while not destroying what is left of the planet. Afforestation is, therefore, a practice that has been propagated by government and non-government agencies of many countries as a way to stop over-exploitation of nature.

Importance: The importance is immense in today's scenario because it is mainly done for commercial purposes. In a natural forest or woodland, the trees are heterogeneous. Owing to the sensitivity to over usage and slow growths, these forests cannot be used continuously for commercial purposes like wood products. The process of planting trees in empty lands helps promote the fast propagation of specific types of trees for the wood industry. With the increasing demand for wood fuels and building materials, this process helps to meet these demands without cutting down the natural forests. Deforestation can lead to the depletion of trees in water catchments and riverside zones. Afforestation ensures trees and plants that hold the soil in these sensitive areas remain protected. Many countries have introduced the practice of planting trees along with agricultural crops in croplands. The benefits of this practice, which is called agroforestry, are: • It provides a supply of timber, fruit, and fodder for cattle apart from crop production • It prevents soil erosion • It enables better retention of water • It shields crops from excessive wind and sun damage In terms of the environmental benefits, planting trees is always beneficial whether it takes place in a barren land or is used as a method to regenerate a depleted forest. Trees help check atmospheric carbon dioxide; large scale afforestation can curb the problems caused due to burning of fossil fuels, industrialization and so forth. Current Efforts: In the central hardwood forest region of the US, increasing numbers of land owners are converting crop land marginally into a forest. This is being done to decrease the pressure on the use of existing hardwood species of the forest like black cherry, black walnut, and northern red oak. In South Africa, about 0.5 percent of land is covered with indigenous forests, and 1.1 percent by forests formed by Total Commercial Afforestation (TCA) and containing trees like pine, gum trees, black wattle, and so forth. This has helped provide wood to be used for charcoal, poles, mining timber, paper pulp, and other commercial applications. The advantage of planting a tree species, like pine, is it helps check infections the tree is prone to in its native country and climate, thus producing higher production. Pursuant to better growth and higher yields due to afforesting of these alien species, South Africa can produce and export close to two million tons of wood and wood products. In China, the government has earmarked a bulk amount equivalent to almost 300 billion US dollars that would be completely utilized for afforesting schemes the country is planning. To combat soil erosion in Central and West China, the government has already started the process of converting farmland back to woodland. Conclusion: Afforesting is a positive effort in curbing the over-use and destruction of natural forests. If done with proper planning and at appropriate sites, it can become a commercially viable solution for many human needs without harming the balance of nature. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.194.132.99 (talk) 11:09, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

The definition above "Afforestation is the effort to plant trees in barren lands so as to create a forest." seems to come from a less reliable source than the current definition in the article? So if I understand right if the land was forest a few thousand years ago and humans want to make it forest again that is called "reforestation" not "afforestation"? Chidgk1 (talk) 06:58, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

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Introduction Citations

It would appear that many statistics in the second paragraph on this page are not attributed to a source. Given that they are quantitative facts, a citation is needed to credit the study where this information was found. Sophiafine (talk) 06:23, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: HIEA 140 REMOTE China since 1978

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 3 April 2023 and 10 June 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Nosemi (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Nosemi (talk) 19:34, 31 May 2023 (UTC)

Check examples section - overlap with reforestation examples

If someone has time: please take a look at the examples section: there seems to be a bit of overlap with the examples given in the reforestation article, e.g. for China. I wonder if it's better to merge the two example sections into one article as it might be difficult to delineate afforestation from reforestion programs exactly? EMsmile (talk) 11:20, 14 September 2023 (UTC)