"We can fail as Human Beings, but we cannot fail our Human Nature."

In addition to absorbing CO2, forests have more important roles and over the last decades we collected 30 reasons to plant trees for our #WanakasetChallenge. Please help us plant more trees and grow the list to make it to 100 reasons to plant a tree!

1. Produce Free Oxygen and compensate for the Oxygen that internal combustion engines (hydrogen, biodethanol, diesel, jet fuel, etc..) consume to produce energy)
2. Produce clean water through Foliar evaporation and provide the planet with clean clouds that help move rain around. During a growing season, an acre of corn gives off about 12000 litres of water a day and a one single large Oak tree in Wanakaset France will produce around 400 litres a day. We will not comment on Wanakaset Sri Lanka or Panama where each tree can produce an entire cloud every hour!
3. Trees produce edible leaves for humans, animals, insects, microbes and bacteria needed to produce humus, essential to life.
4. Trees produce fruits and delicious syrup from sap like the one Maple trees deliver.
5. Trees produce extracts used in medicine and are at the forefront of technological innovation! The bark of some trees from the Rubiaceae (coffee family) and the Bignoniaceae when synthesized enabled humans to discover Quinine and other medicine needed to treat Malaria and possibly COVID-19?
6. Trees produce material for nests, building homes, furniture and even insulation with cork but also as a living structure are used as nests and dens in their branches, leaves, trunks but also between their roots for a flurry of animals and insects!
7. Trees produce flowers that feed insects and humans but also produce perfumes or colorants.
8. Trees produce a bark that is used for cork but also latex.. needed for many interesting things!
9. Trees can be used as fuel as well and help with barbecue in winter or at night when our solar plants produce nothing and our batteries are empty. It happens every now and then at Wanakaset as we are off grid.
10. Trees hold the soil together and avoid landslides and thousands of deaths a year.
11. Trees through the root system help water percolate to the aquifer instead of flushing top soil to rivers and the oceans.
12. Forests provide food for herbivores who then become food for carnivores and then offer humans Hunting grounds.
13. Forests regulate the population of pests through biodiversity and to some extent by changing their DNA and/or producing natural enzymes affecting pests growth rate. Exemple
14. Forests are incredible Playgrounds for kids and humans.
15. Forests are Future fossil fuels (in a million year or so) and potential bio-gas in the near future.
16. Trees reduce the risk of waterlogging and salinization. See here
17. Trees moderate soil temperature and provide shade unlike solar panels potentially increasing ambient temperatures by 3 degrees through the heat island effect. See here
18. Mineral weathering, through the roots, trees transform minerals from rocks into minerals in fruits and leaves that are edible. We need those minerals for our immune system.
19. Trees and forest are used as very effective wind breaks.
20. Forests block sand storms by collecting the sand and diatoms and turn it into food. But they also slow down deserts slowly moving into arable land. See here See here
21. Forests slow down, storm, hurricanes and tsunamis when they are made of indigenous and deeply rooted trees.
22. Forests are exceptional noise reduction systems. Up to 8 to 10 decibels for every 30 metre of trees! The rainfroests of Wanakaset Sri Lanka and Panama remain very noisy and buoyant with life though! See here
23. Trees or forests provide privacy from nosy neighbours (birds, foxes, etc..)
24. Some forests or trees are serious tourism attractions, our 350 years old Umbrella Pine in Wanakaset France, the forest in Fontainebleau, Sakura in japan, Kui Buri in Thailand or Jianfengling on the island of Hainan and Kenting National Park on the island of Taiwan.
25. Tree bark is also necessary to scratch your back and that of wild boars and many animals to get rid of pests!
26. Nitrogen fixing trees have the rare ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen with the help of Rhizobium and other fungi and turn it into an accessible compound to plants and other trees.
27. Trees and forests reduce erosion by slowing down the water flows downstream and reducing the loss of soil to rivers and oceans.
28. Forests are excellent for edible Mushroom production that turn wood fiber into edible stuff like truffles.
29. Spices and coffee or teas are extracted from trees and forests.
30. Old trees have the ability to give us clues about weather patterns over centuries and millennia. See here
31. Trees help friends and family remember us. A beautiful reason from a 5-year-old boy leaving Brazil who decided to give away his avocado sapling to his friend hoping he will remember him.
32. Trees support our Energy Saving efforts. See here
33. Trees support our mental health. See here
34. Trees are good for business, increase property value and attract more customers. See here
35. Trees help decontaminate polluted soils. See here
36. Trees "cleanse" the air we breathe (NO2, Sox, O3). See here , here and here
37. Trees bring us together.
38. Trees love music and emit sounds that have spiritual powers. See here.
39. Trees’ sap and fruits are great for making Alcoholic beverages if needed! (consume moderately) See here
40. From Tony Juniper's book, we learned about the Biotic Pump Theory which argues that forests are the driving force behind rain precipitation over land masses. It is condensation from forests (intensive evaporation from the canopy area, larger than our oceans) and not temperature differences that bring precipitation over land and all terrestrial life.
41. Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. Japanese believe hanging out in forests can restore our mood, give us back our energy and vitality, refresh and rejuvenate us. See here
42. Time spent in forests improves our problem solving abilities and boosts our creativity. See here
43. Greater Tree canopy cover is associated with lower rates of both violent and property crime. See here
44. Deodorants anyone? Some trees figured humans might be inconvenienced when smelling certain odours. See here
45. Trees are useful navigators’ companion when lost. See here
46. Plants and trees have a more positive impact on road safety than initially thought. See here
47. Forests provided humans with the most illegally traded wild products! By volume and prize, it is actually a tree, a good reason to plant some! See here
48. Trees can be used as funeral homes for infants in some cultures. See here
49. Trees can be used as free weather stations! Pine cones for instance can be used as hygrometers. See here and here
50. Trees provide for excellent obstacles for mountain ski and bike riders!
51. Without Trees decorated, Christmas would never be the same.
52. Trees and plants can deliver lethal poison, the pangium edule or conium maculatum. Ask Socrate!
53. Trees represent religious deities in many cultures. Some believe trees have souls and others used them to protect their ancestors.
54. Trees are used for Totem poles and monuments by the Haida people. See here and here
55. Trees are time machines. Dendrochronology help us date past events. Very useful to archaeologists.
56. Trees nourish each other via fungal networks with Carbon compounds and talk to one another. Sounds like the UN’s World Food Programme? See here
57. Trees are used for Art Background for wedding pictures, flowers to nuts to wood carving. But also man-made gardens on the UNESCO heritage list like Suzhou or Singapore.
58. Trees are wonderful play areas for animals too but also for them to share their art! See here
59. Trees in the desert give you hope as they highlight proximity to water for both humans and other planet users.
60. Forests and tree planting generates jobs and saves livelihoods especially during recessions. See here
61. Trees support us when healing from illnesses. See here
62. Some Trees convert sea water to fresh water. See here
63. Paper anyone? No trees, no papyrus, no paper! Not even toilet paper!
64. Prizes of War! The history of the Nutmeg serves as a reminder that competition for trees was and is still raging. See here
65. Planting trees is an act of faith according to Kimerer Lamothe. See here
66. Some trees can delay forest fires and if planted around your house can save your property too! See here and here
67. Trees absorb 95% of UV radiations. Amy Chillag of CNN cited David Nowak from the US Forest Services. Indulge in Forest Bathing! See here
68. Trees can help you give birth. “Birthing Trees” were more common than you think! From the people of Australias’s Djab Wurrung and all the way to Jamaica (Kitzinger, Oral traditions, Field notes 1964), trees were commonly used to support women giving birth. Now it is a bit easier my wife retorted, men finally admitted some form of responsibilities and started to be the tree.
69. Big cats need a “tree canopy corridor” to move around. Now we understand and can keep them around. See here
70. Trees support coastal marine life and river life too! Aquatic and semi aquatic species need them to lay their eggs and as feeding grounds See here
71. Some tree canopy enables more food production from a shrub and a vegetable garden layer. Some call it forest gardening, permaculture or Wanakaset (Forest Agriculture in Thai). See here
72. Trees and Forests slow down coastal erosion too. See here
73. Just plant trees and do not worry about their sexual life! According to Yampolsky, 1922, 72% of plants are hermaphrodites, 7% are monoecious, 17% are intermediary and only 4% are dioecious. Some can also switch sexes when faced with hardship. A headache for amateurs but when you throw 10 seeds of palm dates in a box, 5 will be male and 5 will be female! Amazing no? See here
74. Trees through their seeds and roots are genius #Frequent Travellers! Those who refrain from planting trees because they cannot move are mistaken. Trees move around with gravity, wind, ballistic technology, animals and of course humans. You can plant the seeds below, move up to 5000km away and you could get your trees back! See here
75. Trees, through their flowers, leaves, bark and sap produce natural aromas and scents perceptible miles away like those of pine, eucalyptus, orange flowers or camphor!