What is a forest?

What do you see when you enter a forest? Trees swaying by the gentle breeze, birds singing as the waterfalls/streams crash on wet slippery rocks, insects buzzing while hovering lightly over bright colourful flowers.  When you enter a forest you see life, vibrancy, and beauty.  when you enter a forest, you enter a whole new world enriched by amazing beauty and life, but when you go a few meters ahead you either enter a loud, buzzing city or a heap of trees planted in a row after another of the same tree.  All life, vibrancy, and beauty have disappeared.  There are no birds or insects, all the flowers have gone and the streams seemed to have vanished.  This place is called a monoculture.

A monoculture?

A monoculture is when lines of the same trees have been planted on a huge landmass.  These monocultures are growing by the minute.  In Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania and other parts of the world huge numbers of monocultures can be seen made because of small things like Palm Oil.  In Indonesia, the number of lands deforested for palm trees has now become 5 times the size of what it was in 1980.  These so-called "forests" drive animals out of their houses, dry up rivers and endanger plants.  Well, they still give oxygen, don't they? you might ask.  Yes, they do but researches have shown that forests filled with different types of native plants store more carbon than monocultures.

Why should we plant only native plants in the region?

In reforesting, we need to plant only native plant species irrespective of their qualities, as they have already adapted to the respective environment.  If we plant non-native trees and plants then they could be invasive to the environment and end up destroying the whole eco-system.  We should especially plant old and endangered native spices, to increase their number and improve the environment as they have had more time to adapt to the environment when compared to other plants. 

How using a native workforce can decrease deforestation.

Think about it, why are people cutting trees? To gain money.  So, if we give them enough money to plant trees then they would stop cutting them and start planting.  Also, the native community knows more about their surroundings and plants as they have spent all their life there.

This is the right way to restore plants and animals. Ask tree-planting organizations if they actually do all these things before donating.