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Are you a journalist interested in writing about reforestation? Or are you looking to learn more about the field of tree planting?
On March 24, 2022, Mongabay hosted a webinar on reforestation. The panel discussion featured two leading experts in the reforestation sector, Robin Chazdon and Erin Axelrod, and journalist Nithin Coca. These accomplished guests shared views, trends, possible story ideas, and answer questions about tree planting during a free Zoom event.
If you are a journalist who wants to learn more about how to cover reforestation for Mongabay or other outlets, this session is now available on YouTube:
What is reforestation?
Reforestation is exactly what it sounds like: replacing forests that have been cut down or restocking forests that have been degraded through human activities, like logging, or natural means, like forest fires.
Researchers estimate that the world lost as much as 411 million hectares of tree cover, or more than 1 billion acres, between 2000 and 2020, an area larger than India. Much of it fell to make room for agriculture, and deforestation is continuing at an alarming pace.
Yet forests are considered one of the best ways to fight climate change, and they offer many other benefits to both people and the planet.
Nowadays, tree-planting initiatives are more abundant than ever as the world attempts to deal with the multiple environmental crises we’re facing, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and water scarcity.
A recent episode of Mongabay Explains provides an excellent, more detailed overview of what reforestation is.
Webinar registration and details
Date and time
March 24, 2022. 6pm EST/5pm CT/3pm PT
Registration
Register for the Zoom webinar here.
This discussion will be moderated by Mongabay staff and the recording will be available for viewing later at this page. Story pitches won’t be taken during the event, but one is invited to submit ideas at the series pitch page.
Mongabay is a nonprofit, award-winning environmental news outlet publishing in 10 languages for over nine million monthly readers.
We hope you can join us! Please register here and tell a friend about it.
The experts
Erin Axelrod
Erin Axelrod is the Project Director for Jonas Philanthropies Trees for Climate Health, an ambitious campaign to grow 10M trees by 2025 utilizing a unique data-driven right tree, right place, right community approach. Erin is an expert on nature-based climate solutions, especially tree growing, and presents regularly on the plethora of benefits trees have on our environment and communities and how, by investing in trees, we are investing in and supporting our most vulnerable populations.
Robin Chazdon
Robin Chazdon is Professor Emerita in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at the University of Connecticut (1988-2016) and part-time Research Professor with the Tropical Forests and People Research Centre, Forest Research Institute at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. Her long-term and on-going collaborative research focuses on forest regeneration, forest and landscape restoration, and ecosystem services provided by forests. She is the author or co-author of over 215 peer-reviewed publications, including her sole authored book “Second growth: The promise of tropical forest regeneration in an age of deforestation” (2014).
She recently served as the Executive Director of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation and as Director of the NSF-funded Research Coordination Network PARTNERS (People and Reforestation in the Tropics, a Network for Education, Research, and Synthesis). She is a Senior Fellow with the World Resources Institute Global Restoration Initiative, a Senior Research Associate with the International Institute for Sustainability in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and a member of the Council of Fellows of the Global Evergreening Alliance. She serves on the advisory boards of the Trillion Trees, 1t.org, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, and is a board member of EcoLogic Development Fund.
Nithin Coca
Nithin Coca is a Asia-focused freelance journalist who covers climate, environment, and supply chains across the region. He has been awarded fellowships from the Solutions Journalism Network, The Pulitzer Center, and the International Center for Journalists, and his features have appeared in outlets in North America, Asia, and Europe, including Financial Times, Mongabay, Ensia, Yale E360, China Dialogue, The Nation and Engadget. He splits his time between California, Indonesia, and Japan.
About Mongabay
Mongabay is a nonprofit environmental science and conservation news platform focused on providing cutting-edge independent journalism from nature’s frontline. We pride ourselves in producing reporting that has substantial, tangible impacts around the world.