Planting trees and preserving mangrove swamps and wetlands are cheap and effective but overlooked, report says
Tree-planting, wetland restoration, mangrove swamps and other natural ways of protecting the environment from the impacts of the climate crisis could save hundreds of billions of dollars a year and replace high-carbon infrastructure, research has found.
Planting trees helps to protect land from flooding and landslips, mangrove swamps buffer against sea level rises and storm surges, and wetlands act like sponges to absorb excess water. These forms of “natural infrastructure”, or nature-based solutions, have the added benefit of taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, acting as natural carbon sinks.