In February of 2025, Eliane Ubalijoro, CEO of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), will embark on a mission from the sun-drenched streets of Nairobi to the frozen expanse of Svalbard, a remote Norwegian archipelago within the Arctic Circle.
She will carry with her a selection of tree seeds from CIFOR-ICRAF’s Tree Genebank—precious lifelines of biodiversity that will be placed in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. This underground facility safeguards duplicates of over a million seed samples from around the world, serving as a genetic insurance policy against food and nutritional insecurity, climate change, deforestation and ecological collapse.
Making the journey with Eliane Ubalijoro are the iconic baobab (Adansonia digitata), a tree that provides healthful fruits and leaves for human consumption; the much-sought-after fertiliser and nitrogen-fixing tree faidherbia (Faidherbia albida); and Sudan teak (Cordia africana), a valuable timber species facing increasing threats. These native species, among many others, are essential to both biodiversity and human livelihoods, yet they are under increasing pressure.
Why are these samples so precious? Below, we explore why native tree species matter— and how we can help to maintain and restore them, too.
What is a native tree species?
The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines a native tree species as one that “occurs within its natural range (past or present) and dispersal potential.” Some native species are called ‘endemic’, meaning they exist only in a specific region and nowhere else.
All tree species are originally native to somewhere, but when trees are introduced outside their native range due to human movement, they are referred to as exotic. Over time, some exotic species may become naturalized, adapting to their new environments and even playing important ecological roles for conservation. However, from a conservation perspective, native species remain the highest priority as they are uniquely adapted to their ecosystems and are often at greater risk of habitat loss.
Itare Conservation Group member Stephen Kenduiwo holds an indigenous seed. Photo by Patrick Shepherd / CIFOR-ICRAF
While exotic tree species can provide valuable tree products and services, such as timber, fuelwood, and erosion control, there is now a strong emphasis on planting native tree species for landscape restoration. Native trees offer significant ecological benefits, including supporting local biodiversity, enhancing soil health, and maintaining ecosystem resilience. The sections below will explore these benefits further.
How and why are native tree species at risk?
During the Anthropocene, our planet’s trees have declined considerably in both extent and species diversity. Every year, an estimated 15 billion trees are lost globally, amounting to about 41 million trees every day.
The primary threats contributing to this decline include agricultural expansion, overexploitation, climate change and the spread of invasive and other problematic species. These threats often work in combination, creating compounding pressures. For example, climate change can not only make trees more vulnerable to invasive pests but can also exacerbate wildfires, leaving already fragile tree populations particularly exposed. As another example, urban development can lead to tree loss per se, but also contribute to habitat fragmentation, making it harder for species to adapt to changing conditions. Today, more than one in three known tree species worldwide—more than 17,000 species in total—faces the risk of extinction.
How and why do native tree species matter?
Tree species have evolved in their native environment over thousands or even millions of years, adapting to specific conditions and ecosystems. This evolutionary process has endowed them with unique genetic compositions and attributes that allow them to thrive in their particular contexts. These attributes not only help these species withstand environmental change but also provide plant breeders with the genetic diversity needed to develop new genotypes that can endure future climate challenges.
Native tree species’ longevity-in-place allows them to form especially high numbers of important relationships and interactions with other species, supporting biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem health. Native trees provide sustainable natural habitats for nurturing local biodiversity while offering valuable resources to communities. For example, many native trees hold cultural, economic and nutritional significance, supplying a wide range of resources such as timber, medicines, fruits, nuts, leafy vegetables, fodder, fuelwood, sacred places and shade. Their planting and their natural regeneration are essential to landscape restoration and environmental stability.
A New Zealand wood pigeon, a kereru, lodged in a karaka tree. Photo by Elysia / Animalia
In New Zealand, for example, the native karaka tree (Corynocarpus laevigatus) has evolved in tandem with the kererū (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae), a large purple-and-green native woodpigeon and the only surviving native bird species that’s big enough to swallow and disperse its seeds. If either species declines, the survival of the other is directly impacted. Similar interdependencies exist worldwide. In Africa, massive baobab trees provide sustenance for countless species, with fruit bats pollinating the trees to ensure their regeneration, whereas the flowers provide the bats with nutritional floral nectar. The trees also store water in their trunks, sustaining entire ecosystems through dry seasons. In South America, Brazil nut trees rely exclusively on specific bee species and agoutis for pollination and seed dispersal while providing sources of food to these animals.
As ecologist Jose M. Montoya noted in a recent article, “Ecosystems change in a kind of chain reaction, just like bowling. The impact of the ball knocks down one or two pins, but they hit other pins and this ultimately determines your score. Likewise, when one species goes extinct in an ecosystem, many others may follow even if they are not directly affected by the initial disturbance.”
The full extent of native trees’ ecological contributions remains largely unknown and we may not recognize the full impact of their loss until it’s too late. However, we must keep enough of them alive to avoid ‘knocking all the pins down’.
Are restoration projects helping or hindering native tree species?
Large-scale tree-planting projects have increased globally in response to the crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. This is reflected in ambitious restoration pledges made by countries under the Bonn Challenge and other initiatives.
The enthusiasm for planting trees to support landscape restoration is laudable, but the implementation is not always sound. Some initiatives prioritize poor-quality, fast-growing exotic species, as they are often the cheapest and most accessible seeds and seedlings. In East Africa, for example, exotic trees such as eucalypts and grevillea (Grevillia robusta) are often planted rather than the wide range of native trees for which potential growers find it more difficult to obtain seeds and seedlings.
This tends to result in monoculture plantation-type plantings with poor outcomes for biodiversity, carbon sequestration and climate resilience. “Recent studies have shown, for example, that diverse native forests can sequester significantly more carbon than monoculture plantations over their lifetime, while providing significantly better habitats for wildlife and greater resilience to climate-related disease stresses. Where exotic tree species are invasive—as is often the case for commonly planted pines and eucalypts—this can threaten the survival of nearby native forests, too.
How can we help to conserve and restore native tree species populations?
The most effective way to maintain tree diversity is straightforward: keep native forests standing. When that is not possible, seed and field gene banks play a crucial role, as does the preservation of trees in farms and other human-modified landscapes.
Commitments under the Bonn Challenge and various practical restoration initiatives are opening new opportunities to promote, plant, and integrate native trees into landscapes. As awareness grows around the importance of native species, restoration projects are placing greater emphasis on their inclusion. Where ecosystems have already been degraded, restoration efforts can be most effective by planting the ‘right tree in the right place.’ While this may sometimes include a mix of native and exotic species depending on local needs, there is increasing recognition of the need to prioritize native trees.
To guide better tree planting decisions, the Right Tree in the Right Place – Seed initiave (RTRP-Seed), led by CIFOR-ICRAF in collaboration with international, national, and local partners, works to ensure a sustainable supply of high-quality native tree seeds and seedlings for landscape restoration, with a particular focus on the African continent. This initiative aims to create an enabling environment for the use of native species, offering guidance and resources to public and private stakeholders on managing trees and strengthening the supply chain.
Supporting these efforts, the Transformative Partnership Platform for tree seed and seedling delivery systems (Tree Seed TPP) has been established to enhance collaboration across Africa, fostering the development of a sustainable, integrated, and high-quality tree seed and seedling sector.
These initiatives are already yielding tangible results. In Madagascar, communities have successfully restored critical watershed forests using native species, leading to improved water security and the return of endemic wildlife. In Kenya, native tree restoration has increased household incomes by up to 30%, thanks to the sustainable harvesting of fruits, medicines, and other tree-derived products. Additionally, tree-based food sources such as fruits, nuts, and leafy vegetables contribute significantly to food and nutritional security by providing essential vitamins and minerals year-round.
By investing in the conservation and restoration of native trees, we can strengthen biodiversity, enhance resilience to climate change, and support local livelihoods. The key to success lies in ensuring the right trees are planted in the right places—allowing native species to flourish and ecosystems to thrive for generations to come.
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