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CONSTITUCIÓN, Mexico — At an empty outpost deep in a forest in Mexico, biologists were checking whether the windows had been broken or the furniture stolen, or if any animals had made a home inside.
The outpost had been built in 2015 for a tree-planting and forest restoration project, but it was paused in 2023. The land had been degraded by decades of farming; massive flooding every few years made restoration work too difficult and expensive for Plant-for-the-Planet, the organization that had purchased it.
Researchers with Plant-for-the-Planet know they’ve fallen victim to overambition before, attempting to restore complex ecosystems they didn’t fully understand, and often with a very tight budget. At this idle site, they still hoped to get some support through a government wildlife program. But until that happened, the outpost would remain empty.
“For it to make sense to restore a forest, we really need to be thinking in terms of decades and centuries,” Anna Gee, the group’s forest restoration and conservation project manager, told Mongabay. “How do you create a forest that’s going to be able to sustain itself and self-perpetuate into the future and isn’t just going to get cut down again in 20 years?”
Reforestation is hard. For decades, it’s been touted as a catch-all solution to climate change and biodiversity loss, with corporations buying up carbon offsets and governments launching tree-planting campaigns, despite many of the trees dying before they reach maturity. In some instances, programs prioritize the number of trees planted over how many survive, choosing nonnative species that may be poorly adapted to the local environment, and applying little long-term maintenance.
In the case of Plant-for-the-Planet, the group has stuck to its ambitious tree-planting goals, even as it struggles with funding and faces criticism of flawed planting techniques and problematic financial ties with tourism projects. The group has faced bad press and several staff shakeups over the years but has never abandoned its restoration goals, creating a network of “climate justice ambassadors” across 76 countries while planting nearly 15 million trees at its reforestation sites in Mexico, Spain and Ghana.
The question for donors and conservationists now is whether Plant-for-the-Planet can learn from its missteps.
“Every project is going to make mistakes,” Gee said. “The aim is to learn from them as you move forward.”
The first seedlings
When Plant-for-the-Planet was launched in 2007, reforestation wasn’t the primary goal of its founder, Felix Finkbeiner, a 9-year-old whose school tree-planting project happened to make the local news. The organization was focused on community building and activism, bringing together kids in Germany for one-day workshops on the climate crisis and forest biodiversity.
By 2011, the organization was a nonprofit, setting up chapters in other parts of Europe and the U.S. The Finkbeiner family had rented office space and hired five staff members.
Felix had become a bit of an environmental child star by then, receiving mention in The New York Times Magazine and appearing at the International Year of Forests in New York, where, at just 13 years old, he covered the mouth of the U.N. General Assembly’s president, Joseph Deiss, and told him to “stop talking and start planting.”
Felix’s father, Frithjof, worked in construction sales before transitioning to work in climate nonprofits and real estate, including in southern Mexico. Several members of the Finkbeiner family sit on the board of a tourism development company called Tankah Enterprise in the Yucatán Peninsula. Connections there and knowledge of the local laws allowed Felix to set up a more serious tree-planting operation in Mexico, which started work in 2015.
“It became obvious fairly quickly that Mexico was going to be the place to do it for practical reasons,” Finkbeiner told Mongabay. “From an ecological perspective, there obviously would have been so many places in the world that make sense. But when you actually need to implement that, you need to have people on the ground that you can work with.”
Most reforestation projects are located in wet forests, in part because of their rapid growth. But tropical dry forests, like the ones in the Mexican state of Campeche, make up around half of the world’s forests and need significant restoration as well. They just pose different challenges.
Plant-for-the-Planet researchers had to deal with wet and dry seasons, which can add stress to seedlings and slow their growth. Without canopy cover, the soil shrinks and swells. In those early years, seedling survival rates were between 10% and 50%. The team planted in high-density clusters to ensure about 1,000 surviving trees per hectare.
The operation sourced seedlings from local nurseries, trying to figure out which species would survive. They used eight native species at first due to availability, even if they were not necessarily reflective of the area’s biodiversity. Finkbeiner recalled it being an acceptable approach for general forestry but not serious restoration. In time, they would start using a “reference forest” to help them model a more naturally occurring ecosystem.
“We made so many mistakes in the early years,” Finkbeiner recalled of the start in Mexico, “and got to learn a lot, got better over time.”
Plant-for-the-Planet hired residents from the local town of Constitución, as well as other parts of southern Mexico, to help plant during the rainy season and to cut away grasses that competed with seedlings for shade during the dry season. The goal was to get the trees to grow large enough to form a canopy. Canopy shade keeps the soil cool, stymies grass growth, and creates a more humid microclimate suitable for tree seedlings.
Starting in 2018, locals were invited to maintain beehives, which increases the pollination of species with flowers and fruits. The team also reached out to nearby schools and cattle ranchers to educate them about the importance of the forests, even if some areas still didn’t look like forests.
“The project we’re doing is really, really good,” Jairo Aguirre Castillo, one of the workers who lives in Constitución, told Mongabay. “It’s about reforesting plants. Here people are cutting down trees and turning them into pastures, fields … What we’re doing is reforesting so there’s more trees, more oxygen.”
Controversy and new growth
In 2020, German news outlet ZEIT reported that Plant-for-the-Planet had exaggerated the number of trees it had planted, in part by taking credit for the work of other projects. In some cases, the number was impossible to verify because there weren’t detailed records or evidence of survival rates.
The ZEIT investigation also found that tree survival rates appeared to be inflated and implausible, given massive flooding at some sites, where hundreds of thousands of trees had died.
Finkbeiner said that while the ZEIT article was certainly a surprise, the Mexico team was already working on some of the issues it had brought up, including establishing permanent monitoring plots and survival rate measurements.
“I don’t want to say that I had everything [from the story] on my mind already and it was just a lack of implementation,” he told Mongabay. “But there were some things that they pointed out where we were like, ‘Indeed.’”
Despite being in the middle of a Ph.D. program, Finkbeiner moved to Mexico for six months to directly address the issues. He would eventually step back from some of his leadership responsibilities, recognizing that he had stretched himself too thin to guide Plant-for-the-Planet’s entire global operation, which had just launched a restoration project in Spain and was preparing another in Ghana. It was important for him to trust experts and let other people lead, he said.
“It’s maybe a lesson that you shouldn’t put 25-year-olds in charge of too many things,” he joked.
To address the problems found in ZEIT’s investigation, Plant-for-the-Planet developed the TreeMapper phone application, which makes it easier to check where and what species have been planted and how donor money is being spent.
Data collection became an increasing priority. In addition to finishing 900-square-meter (9,700-square-foot) monitoring plots to track restoration outcomes, the organization started using forest inventories to compare species composition of nearby reference forests with those of their planting sites.
This year, the Mexico team is sourcing around 30 different native species from Green Forest Nursery, which has helped develop a more intentional approach to planting. Some include kapok (Ceiba pentandra), breadnut (Brosimum alicastrum) and mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla).
Gee said it’s important to source seeds locally. Many local species are found in other states like Chiapas and Tabasco, but trees from those regions have evolved under different climates, which would lower their chance of survival in Campeche.
“[We’re] making sure that we do continuous monitoring of important indicators and get that data back and adapt to it,” she said.
Every year, researchers have a better understanding of the timing of seasonal life-cycle events, like when buds open, leaves appear and seeds disperse. They’re especially interested in tree species with fleshy fruits, because these can attract animals that disperse additional seeds of other species.
Tree survival rate has ticked up at several sites. Instead of high-density clusters, the team now plants three of a species for every 3 meters (10 feet).
“It’s not just about putting a seed or seedling in the ground,” Gee said. “It’s about growing those trees and making sure those trees survive to maturity and create a healthy, functioning forest ecosystem. That’s really what we’re here for.”
Money doesn’t grow on trees
Plant-for-the-Planet Mexico planted nearly 1.75 million trees in 2024, although some were destroyed by fires in the spring. This year, it aims to plant around 2 million trees. Despite these successes, the operation is facing new challenges all the time.
Back when the project was launched, it cost donors 1 euro ($1.37 at the exchange rate at the time) to finance the planting of a tree. Today, inflation and mounting research costs have bumped that figure up to 1.50 euros ($1.70) — and even that can feel tight for researchers on the ground.
Most of the money goes toward planting, and then clearing the grasses and monitoring firebreaks. Researchers said it’s important to educate donors about the importance of forest maintenance. Most donors want to see their money reflected in a certain number of trees planted, but there are other important steps in the reforestation process that also need to be paid for.
“How much does it cost to go dig a hole and plant a tree?” said Oscar Verduzco Salazar, director of the research and restoration center in Mexico. “Well, but you also have to pay salaries. There’s workers’ insurance, transportation, vehicle maintenance.”
To generate new funding in 2023, the Plant-for-the-Planet Mexico planning board considered purchasing a beachfront villa in the popular tourist town of Tulum worth $1.65 million, which would have reportedly involved clearing a forested patch of land. The Finkbeiners’ real estate company, Tankah Enterprise, had already paid $350,000 toward the property.
Felix told Mongabay he wasn’t aware of the plans. The idea came from his father, Frithjof, who took the idea to a real estate appraiser, Raúl Negrete, who had helped the family set up tree-planting operations back in 2015. He said he believed Plant-for-the Planet could resell the property for an approximately $700,000 profit, which could then be reinvested into restoration projects.
The idea ultimately fell through because the seller refused to grant written consent for Plant-for-the-Planet to take over the purchase, according to Frithjof.
But the idea also became an ethical and public relations liability when it came to light earlier this year. ZEIT was the first to cover the issue again, noting that cutting down forests with funds from a reforestation organization came off as more than a little counterproductive.
“It’s really important for us to show to our donors that we have reliable practices so that the money they supply for tree planting is used for tree planting and not for any other purposes, not even as an intermediary investment,” Jens Waltermann, chair of Plant-for-the-Planet’s board, told Mongabay.
The German office launched an investigation into the potential real estate deal and froze financial support for the Mexico operation until the issue could be resolved. New board members are being appointed and Negrete’s role as pro-bono president of Plant-for-the-Planet Mexico has been paused until he can make a full exit from the board of Tankah Enterprise, including his 1% shareholding.
“I’m very passionate about the work of Plant-for-the-Planet and I hope to continue contributing to it very soon,” he told Mongabay in a written statement.
Still learning, still planting
Researchers in Mexico like Gee and Verduzco said they were hardly aware of the real estate development controversy. They’re more focused on day-to-day data collection. They say they have enough funds to survive the support freeze from the German office, which should only last a few more months
At the same time, they applied for a grant focused on the collection, cultivation and planting of threatened tree species. They’re also hoping to gain special wildlife management status at the site where the outpost still sits empty, except for periodic visits by Plant-for-the-Planet staff. The grant could provide additional financial support from the government.
Gee said she’s made it a goal to shift the project focus away from just counting trees and toward a more balanced approach to restoration and long-term data collection. She said she hopes this might also position Plant-for-the Planet as a regional research hub for future restoration projects. One new initiative involves putting audio recorders in trees to track wildlife. Birds and bats can be good indicators of a healthy forest. Their absence can also be a warning sign that something isn’t right.
“Responding to data is something that’s already started,” she said. “But as a researcher, I would like a lot more data to be coming in.”
Later this year, Gee plans to visit the Ghana site, where Plant-for-the-Planet has restoration work underway on around 1,000 hectares (about 2,500 acres), with part of it an agroforestry project to support local communities. The plan is to plant around 60,000 trees in 2025 and then 308,000 in 2026.
It’s a complex planting process because the site is a transition zone between savanna and rainforest, making it difficult to find an adequate reference forest for species selection, Gee said.
What gives her hope, she added, is that so many lessons have already been learned in Mexico, and every year they’re getting better at restoring their forests.
“We don’t have to repeat the same mistakes over and over again,” she said. “We don’t have to fail on our own.”
Banner image: Employed women of the Banpewa community carrying seedlings to the planting site. Image by Plant-for-the-Planet Official via Flickr.
