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50 Million Trees in Underserved Communities Globally by 2030

50 Million Trees in Underserved Communities Globally by 2030

Pledge by

UPS

UPS to Plant 50 Million Trees by 2030, Promoting Well-Being in Low-Income & Underserved Communities Globally

Type
Restoring & Growing, Enabling
This pledge will take place from
2020 to 2030
Location
Argentina, Australia, Austria and more

Company website

Pledge overview

The UPS Foundation is moving our world forward by delivering what matters. Our focused approach combines our philanthropy with UPS’s global network and the expertise of our people to deliver HELP – Health & Humanitarian Relief, Equity & Economic Empowerment, Local Community Engagement, and Planet Protection – where it’s needed.

Inspired by the passion of UPS volunteers, The UPS Foundation has collaborated with leading environmental partners to plant 15 million trees in 66 countries across six continents by 2020.

Now we’re expanding our work by joining the 1t.org effort: UPS pledges to plant an additional 35 million trees between 2020 and 2030 in alignment with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) reporting period, and reach 50 million trees. Our global commitment will prioritize planting trees in low-income and underserved communities in cities and developing regions worldwide.

With their ability to absorb carbon, slow erosion, and improve soil and water quality, trees are one of our most powerful tools to address climate change and restore our natural environments. But planting trees can also have a profound impact on our individual lives and communities. Through our work, we’re creating jobs and skill-building opportunities, helping farmers grow more crops, promoting better health in cities, and creating spaces for communities to come together.

Our ambition isn’t just to plant trees – it’s to change the relationship that humans have with the environment and each other for the better. As we train thousands of people each year in tree planting, soil regeneration, sustainable agricultural practices, and community engagement, we create a powerful network of advocates that have an impact beyond the trees we planted together.

Actions in this pledge

  • Restoring and growing trees and forest landscapes

    Supporting actions
    Reforestation
    Re-establishment of forest through planting and/or deliberate seeding on land classified as forest, that has been degraded or where trees are unlikely to regenerate naturally
    Agroforestry
    Activities that establish and manage the integration of trees into agricultural landscapes, silvopastoral systems, farming in forests and along forest margins and tree-crop production
    Mangrove restoration
    Establishment or enhancement of mangroves along coastal areas and in estuaries
    Watershed protection and erosion control
    Establishment and enhancement of forests on very steep sloping land, along water courses, in areas that naturally flood and around critical water bodies
    Urban tree planting
    Planting and maintaining trees within urban areas
    Additional details

    The UPS Foundation’s global work is always informed by local needs, whether it’s our reforesting effort to support endangered ecosystems in the southeast United States, or our work to improve soil quality and train farmers in conservation agriculture in southern Mexico. Our efforts are wide-ranging and vary by year, dependent on the expressed needs of each community we serve and the guidance of our expert partners. The UPS Foundation tracks all efforts internally on an annual basis.

    Restoring & Growing

    Trees
    35 million

  • Enabling activities for trees and forest landscapes

    Supporting actions
    Nursery and seedling development
    Establish tree nurseries, including actions such as identification and collection of seeds and/or growing seedlings
    Sustainable forest management
    Activities that support the stewardship and use of forests (including by local communities and indigenous peoples), to maintain their biological diversity, productivity, and regeneration capacity, as well as their potential to fulfil relevant ecological economic and social functions
    Education and capacity building
    Forest / tree species conservation and restoration education programmes, targeted educational and behaviour change campaigns, training and capacity building, including promotion of local and traditional knowledge and practices
    Community mobilisation
    Community mobilisation and engagement activities for conservation, restoration and reforestation, including enabling systems of community governance, etc.
    Youth engagement
    Engagement of young people and/or youth networks to catalyse a restoration generation
    Land, community rights & enabling institutional frameworks
    Activities that support land rights, resolve land tenure conflicts, support indigenous people’s rights, and other institutional and policy measures that support and facilitate conservation and restoration
    Data collection, management and technological tools
    Activities that provide data and/or technological tools to support conservation and restoration (e.g. monitoring etc.)
    Additional details

    In addition to planting trees for environmental stewardship, The UPS Foundation empowers the communities we serve via employment opportunities, environmental and agricultural education, mentorship, skill-building activities, training in air quality monitoring, and community-building in cities. The UPS Foundation requires our tree planting partners to report trees planted and lives impacted via annual impact reports.

    Enabling

Our ecologically and socially responsible approach

The UPS Foundation and our implementing partners adhere to ecologically-responsible, climate-informed, and socially responsible tree selection and planting, including by restoring threatened species, planting native species and trees that yield food, and positioning local organizations and individuals to lead many aspects of tree planting and care (including through paid job opportunities).

Our results tracking

Tracking and reporting will be managed by individual partner organizations and aggregated for 1t.org by The UPS Foundation.

Ecological metrics

Clean water, soil, and air, plant and wildlife biodiversity, soil stabilization and regeneration, reforestation, improved habitats for native and migratory wildlife populations, trainings in water-saving methods delivered.

Social metrics

Lives impacted by economic benefits, jobs, improved livelihoods, health, skill-buildings and trainings in sustainable livelihoods delivered to local communities, scientific advancements and research enabled by investment (e.g. Green Heart Project re: investigating potential human health benefits of urban greening), agroforestry and sustainable farming trainings and workshops delivered (e.g. Forest Garden Approach), policy changes or bylaws protecting ecosystems, support of indigenous communities, contribution to UN SDGs.

Our system of accreditation

The UPS Foundation receives annual impact reports from our partner organizations. These reports are compiled and verified by an internal audit process as well as by an external third-party to ensure we are using best practices for tracking methods.

Our partners

The Nature Conservancy, Arbor Day Foundation, EARTHDAY.ORG, National Park Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, Keep America Beautiful, the Student Conservation Association, and local community partners.

Our locations

We are working at locations across Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Czechia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Germany, Haiti, India, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Korea, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (UK), and United States of America (USA).

The UPS Foundation will prioritize planting trees in low-income and underserved communities in cities and developing areas worldwide, as well as in 50 global urban and metro areas.

Our implementation progress

Pledge implementation progress reporting is managed in collaboration with IUCN’s Restoration Barometer, and is required annually from the year following pledge publication.