afforestation

The planting of woodland areas. The aim may be to increase the extent of economically useful wood (eg conifer plantations in upland UK) or to protect against soil erosion and desertification by providing shelter belts and vegetation cover on bare ground.

Afforestation is the process of converting open land into a forest by planting trees or their seeds.

Since the industrial revolution many countries have experienced centuries of deforestation, and governments and Non-governmental organisations (NGO's) directly engage in programs of reafforestation (the restocking of existing forests and woodlands which have been depleted, with native tree stock) and also in supporting private and semi-private enterprise in programs of afforestation (the planting of renewable tree stocks for harvesting as lumber or firewood).