AZ Forest
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What is AZ Forest?
AZ Forest is a global initiative to plant and maintain 200 million trees across six continents by 2030, in partnership with experts focused on landscape restoration. AZ Forest is part of our science-based Ambition Zero Carbon strategy, which is focused on delivering deep decarbonisation in line with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting planetary warming to 1.5°C.1 Trees are a natural solution to remove CO2 from the air and are essential to mitigate the effects of climate change.
In addition, AZ Forest restores nature, promotes biodiversity and builds ecological and community resilience. All our reforestation projects are co-designed with planting experts, local communities and governments to deliver natural forest restoration and agroforestry, and maximise co-benefits, including:
- Supporting sustainable livelihoods
- Building local climate resilience
- Reducing the risk of natural disasters, such as floods and landslides
- Supporting a healthy water cycle by increasing flows in the dry season and reducing flooding in heavy rainfall
- Fostering biodiversity
- Supporting disease prevention by:
- reducing air pollution, leading to improved air quality
- cooling the environment by providing shade from the sun, helping manage surface and air temperatures
- Helping increase physical activity in the local community through additional green space
The initiative supports the World Economic Forum’s ‘1T.org – The Champions for a Trillion Trees’ platform, where we are members of the Corporate Alliance committed to helping conserve, restore and grow one trillion trees by 2030.
The twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are damaging the health of people and the planet. Through AZ Forest, we are taking a science-led approach to addressing these major environmental challenges, in partnership with local communities and ecological experts. This reforestation at scale, and for the long-term, will support biodiversity, climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods.
Though our partnerships, by the end of 2022, we had planted over 10.5 million trees in Australia, France, Ghana, Indonesia, the US and the UK since AZ Forest was launched at the World Economic Forum in January 2020, with a commitment to plant 50 million trees by the end of 2025. In 2023, we announced a new commitment to almost quadruple the number of trees planted and maintained, to 200 million by 2030.
Explore our AZ Forest projects
We've committed to plant and maintain trees across six continents, and our project goals include:
⬤ Australia: 25 million trees
⬤ Brazil: 12 million trees
⬤ France: 450 rare oaks trees
⬤ Ghana: 4.7 million trees
⬤ Kenya: 6 million trees
⬤ India: 64 million trees
⬤ Indonesia: 10 million trees
⬤ Rwanda: 5.8 million trees
⬤ Vietnam: 22.5 million trees
⬤ UK: One million trees
⬤ US: One million trees
⬤ Local AstraZeneca tree planting initiatives support landscape regeneration but are in addition to our global AZ Forest commitment.
Americas
- In partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), we are planting and sustaining one million trees in the United States by the end of 2025. The tree planting effort will contribute to the restoration of water quality and wildlife habitats primarily within the Delaware River Watershed, while at the same time combating climate change by increasing carbon storage.
- In Brazil, we are partnering with Biofílica Ambipar and the Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (IPE) to plant 12 million trees in the West of São Paulo Brazil to connect remaining fragments of the Atlantic Forest. The reforestation initiative, called “Corridors for Life”, will create important habitats for vulnerable and endangered species, while also providing local employment opportunities, with an estimated 600 new jobs.
Africa
- In Kenya, we are partnering with Earthbanc to plant and maintain up to six million trees in western Kenya, adjacent to the Rift Valley, and covering more than 3,500 hectares of land.
- In central Ghana, we are expanding our existing AZ Forest partnership with the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (CBA) and New Generation Plantation Technical Assistance (NGPTA) to plant over six million trees in a community-led project known as a 'Living Lab'.
- In Rwanda, we are collaborating on another another "Living Lab", this time in partnership with CBA, the Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) and Reforest'Action. The "MuLaKiLa” agroforestry project aims to plant over 5.8 million trees in 5 years and benefit more than 30,000 farming households - one of the largest forest restoration initiatives in Rwanda.
Europe
- In the UK, one million trees will be planted and maintained by the end of 2025, in partnership with Forestry England and Borders Forest Trust. We will plant 450,000 trees in areas close to our sites in Cambridge and Macclesfield.
- In France, we have replanted 450 rare oak trees lost in the devastating storms of 1990 and 1999 at the Palace of Versailles, bringing life back to the iconic Palace gardens.
Asia
- In Indonesia, we will plant and maintain 10 million trees with One Tree Planted and local partner Trees4Trees, in the Citarum River Basin, West Java, by working with small holder farmers to restore the waterway upon which millions of people depend.
- In Vietnam, we will plant over 22 million trees, investing in agroforestry to support improved diets and nutrition, soil and water conservation and sustainable livelihoods for over 17,000 smallholder farmers.
- In Meghalaya, India, we are partnering with Earthbanc and local implementation partners to plant an estimated 64 million trees, to restore degraded land in this 'global biodiversity hotspot'. Working closely with indigenous knowledge holders, the project will focus on a diverse mix of agroforestry species, accelerating landscape restoration and developing sustainable value chains. The project is expected to create sustainable livelihoods for a significant number of households.
Oceania
In the largest private-sector commitment to reforestation in Australia, we are planting 25 million trees with our partners One Tree Planted and Greening Australia. The project will collectively span an area of approximately 20,000 hectares of land and create habitats for dozens of endangered species. The project harnesses local knowledge, providing economic opportunities for Traditional Owners and rural communities through seed collection, planting, and long-term stewardship.
Our partners include
Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (Global)
European Forest Institute (Europe)
One Tree Planted (Global)
Greening Australia
Biofílica Ambipar (Brazil)
Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (IPE) (Brazil)
New Generation Plantation Technical Assistance (NGPTA) (Ghana)
Nature and Development Foundation (Ghana)
Africa Plantation for Sustainable Development (APSD) (Ghana)
Earthbanc (India)
Trees for Trees (Indonesia)
Global Evergreening Alliance (Vietnam)
Reforest'Action (Rwanda)
ARCOS (Rwanda)
Forestry England (UK)
Borders Forest Trust Scotland (UK)
NFWF (US)
Palace of Versailles (France)
Our AZ Forest Guiding Principles
Our AZ Forest Guiding Principles provide a baseline for project design and ensure a consistent approach to tree planting that follows the science to create forests which will thrive for the long-term and maximise co-benefits. AZ Forest’s Guiding Principles include:
- Involving local people in the project area (farmers, landowners, local communities) and ensuring common goals are developed.
- Monitoring local tree projects for an average of three years to ensure survival and monitoring all large-scale projects for at least ten years to ensure survival.
- Selecting diverse, locally appropriate tree species to maximise climate resilience, biodiversity benefits and reduce risks from pests and diseases.
- Assessing potential projects risks, developing a mitigation plan and ensuring there is a long-term strategy to protect the area and trees.
- Considering land ownership and ensuring project objectives are appropriate to the local socioeconomic context. AZ will not purchase land for reforestation.
- Ensuring projects have positive net social, economic and environmental benefits, and ensuring any potential negative impacts are assessed and mitigated.
- Working within local and national regulations, and where possible complementing policy goals and initiatives.
- Monitoring and reporting metrics from AZ Forest projects, including number of trees planted; number of surviving trees, species planted, and community and biodiversity impacts.
CBA Principles for Landscape Restoration
In addition to our AZ Forest Principles, extensive due diligence is carried out on the to ensure projects manage the risks and opportunities relevant to the local context. As our projects have increased in scale and ambition, our due diligence and quality assessments have evolved.
We have partnered with EFI and the CBA to develop the CBA Principles for Landscape Restoration, a framework to create interdependent landscapes and circular bioeconomy value chains that are sustainable, resilient and locally appropriate.
This framework has been adopted by the CBA for its “Living Labs for Nature, People and Planet” and will be used across its global network of landscape restoration projects.
Our new projects in Brazil, India and our project in Ghana have been developed in line with the CBA Principles, and have undergone a robust science-based third-party assessment to ensure alignment. All future projects will be aligned to these Principles, and we aim to assess the alignment of existing AZ Forest projects.
Healthy forests for healthy people
We know that a healthy environment is critical for good health. The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 14 million people die each year from environmentally related health risks, including eight million people from air pollution alone.2,3
Reforestation supports human health by improving food security, providing a key source of nutrition, improving local water quality, purifying the air, providing life-saving medicines, and improving our well-being.
Whilst one of the primary aims of the AZ Forest programme is to help mitigate climate change, AZ Forest projects are designed to maximise the health, community and ecological co-benefits.
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References
- United Nations Treaty Collection. Paris Agreement. 2015. Available at: http://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf. [Last accessed: June 2023].
- World Health Organization (2022) Environmental health. http://www.who.int/health-topics/environmental-health#tab=tab_1 (Accessed: 18 May 2022)
- World Health Organization (2022) Air pollution. Available at: http://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_1 (Accessed: 18 May 2022)