7.6 million trees planted in Australia through global reforestation push

Greening Australia’s Nathan Lissiman and Barry Heydenrych strategising during this year’s planting season in WA. Photo: Ann & Tom.

Over a million trees have been planted this year in South Australia and Western Australia thanks to multi-year funding from AstraZeneca, bringing the total planted since 2020 to 7.6 million.

The mass reforestation effort by Greening Australia, supported by One Tree Planted, is part of AstraZeneca’s AZ Forest initiative and is one of the largest ever privately-funded restoration programs in the country.

In South Australia, the team delivered the year’s biggest planting site on Eyre Peninsula, adding to ongoing efforts to restore critically endangered Drooping Sheoak Woodland. Meanwhile on Fleurieu Peninsula, planting crews navigated steep terrain to install and guard over 50,000 seedlings by hand, aiming to create much-needed feeding and breeding habitat for the endangered Kangaroo Island Glossy Black Cockatoo.

But the lion’s share of the 7.6 million trees planted since 2020 are in Western Australia (3.2 million), including almost 600,000 native trees planted at two properties in the Great Southern of Western Australia in 2025.

AstraZeneca Australia and New Zealand Country President, Ben McDonald said, “It is great to see the enormous progress made with millions of biodiverse and locally appropriate native trees springing up in priority regions across five states. The projects being delivered in Western Australia showcase the positive impact behind the numbers, for local farmers, for communities and especially for biodiversity”.

Buffering salt scalds to protect productive land and create habitat

Needilup graingrowers Quentin and Natasha Brown received trees this year through the AZ Forest initiative having heard about it through neighbours that undertook similar projects in 2024.

The Browns received a planting this year designed to buffer salt scalds and sequester carbon through the AZ Forest Initiative. Photo: Ann & Tom.

Asked about their motivation, Natasha said: “One of the main issues in this region is creeping salinity. Once the plantings get established, they should be able to hold it at bay to some extent, and also make some of our land that’s not very productive a little bit more so.”

“There’s also the aesthetics of it. We’ve got other plantings that we’ve done five or ten years ago, and it makes you feel good when you drive past and see the trees going really well.”

Glen Steven, Senior Program Officer for Greening Australia in the Great Southern, has been responsible for delivering the 200-hectare planting, which included mapping the soil types on the property, undertaking vegetation surveys at nearby reference sites to identify locally appropriate native species, and sourcing the seed.

He said: “At Quentin and Natasha’s, we’re looking to recreate habitats including Clay Eucalypt Woodland, Sandy Mallee Woodland, and Melaleuca shrubland. There are already a few patches of bushland on this property; by putting in more trees, it means less distance for native animals to travel to find food and resources. Every bit of bushland is important.”

Greening Australia’s Glen Steven and Natasha examining a direct seeding line. Photo: Ann & Tom.

The plantings have been established via direct seeding, using a mix of local native species. Much of the seed for this project has been collected locally by the Badgebup Rangers. It’s also part of a carbon project registered with the Clean Energy Regulator by Canopy.

“We’re sowing hundreds of kilos of seed for a project like this. We aim to get the most germination in the first year, but the great thing about direct seeding is that there can be secondary and even tertiary germination in following years,” said Glen.

“After spending hours and hours at a site, there’s nothing better than coming back and seeing the little germinants.”

The Browns said without the support of the partnership between AstraZeneca, One Tree Planted and Greening Australia, they would not have had the time or expertise to undertake the revegetation themselves, and certainly not on such a large scale.

Quentin said: “There’s a lot of specialised parts to doing a project like this and working with Greening Australia made it easy. So we’ve made a start, and we’ll see where it leads.”

Direct seeding to buffer salt scalds at the Browns. Photo: Ann & Tom.

Multi-year planting for world-class restoration

This year also marked the third year of restoration being undertaken at Bush Heritage Australia’s Ediegarrup Reserve on Goreng Noongar Country, which has also been funded through Greening Australia’s partnership with AstraZeneca and One Tree Planted.

Together with key input from valued First Nations partners, the Nowanup Rangers (seed collection and planting) and Badgebup’s Ngoolyark Rangers (planting), Bush Heritage and Greening Australia have now planted close to 600 hectares at Ediegarrup, using a highly biodiverse mix of 135 different local native species.

Staging a planting over three years is unusual, uniquely enabled by the size of the area available to restore with Bush Heritage, and the funding provided by AstraZeneca. Greening Australia’s operational team welcomed the chance to monitor growth patterns and adjust their approach accordingly.

For example, by observing the previous year’s results, they halved the time needed to sow seed at the target density for Moort forest restoration areas by modifying machine settings and sowing patterns.

Barry Heydenrych, Greening Australia’s Restoration Program Specialist in the Great Southern said this had been the biggest year for delivery at Ediegarrup by far, at 300 hectares.

Barry said: “Working with another environmental not-for-profit like Bush Heritage has meant we’ve been able to really stretch for a high standard of restoration together. For example, we’ve worked with local First Nations partners and local nurseries to bring in some highly specialised species, like youlk [native potato]. We’re trying to get that full range of habitat and function back into this landscape.”

This restoration is registered by nature-based solutions company Canopy as a carbon project under the environmental planting method, and the project had its first audit earlier this year. The first carbon credits were issued in September.

Following an independent audit conducted by an Accounting for Nature® Accredited Auditor, Ediegarrup has also achieved certification for its native vegetation asset account with Accounting for Nature. This environmental account measures the state of nature for the asset, providing a clear, science-based baseline for tracking change (see accountingfornature.org/auacc57).

 
Landholders who want to discuss biodiverse carbon plantings for their properties can find more information and register their interest at greeningaustralia.org.au/landholders.

To receive news like this straight to your inbox, subscribe to Greening Australia’s newsletter, The Leaf.
 

Share this article