Conserving Biodiversity

Trees and the plants associated with them create local ecosystems that provide habitats and food for a wide variety of birds, insects, and small animals. This diversity of species, of both flora and fauna, is a necessity for suitable operation of the food chain and the ecosystem of which they form a part, contributing to the conservation of the planet’s biodiversity.

Protecting Aquifers

Trees help stabilize the flow in rivers, reducing the amount of sedimentation behind dams and preventing landslides and avalanches, since they favor the infiltration of rainwater, avoiding soil loss directly towards rivers.

Water that infiltrates thus is released more slowly and continuously; for that reason, there tends to be less difference between high water levels in the winter and low levels in the summer. Similarly, trees improve soil moisture retention through better soil structure, while strengthening water quality.

Collaborating with oxygen production

Through photosynthesis carried out in the leaves, the tree traps carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and converts it into pure oxygen. Thus fixing the carbon in the wood of its trunk, roots, and branches. If trees are burned, the CO2 is again released into the atmosphere; but by conserving them they become carbon reservoirs.

The leaves also absorb other contaminants from the air, such as carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, and release oxygen. In addition to this gas balance, trees have the ability to absorb and incorporate into their tissues poisonous substances in the air, which also helps to purify the atmosphere.

Creating biological corridors

When trees are close to each other, they become biological corridors allowing connectivity between wooded areas. These corridors are reproductive pathways for animals, increasing their habitat and favoring the presence of a larger number of individuals or species.

Reducing Erosion

When there are trees covering the soil, rain drips gradually from the branches and falls softly, instead of striking the soil directly. This means that when it rains, the tree buffers the rain’s impact and reduces erosion, protecting the topsoil.

The presence of trees favors formation of a layer of organic material over the soil, such as leaves and wood from branches in decomposition, which absorb water and prevent it from immediately running off and dragging soil with it.