The year in 25 highlights
06 January 2025
2024 was a special year for Trees for All. Together with our supporters, we celebrated our 25th anniversary with the planting of a Jubilee Forest! And that was not the only milestone. In the video below, we look back on the highlights of the past year together with our ambassador Melissa Drost. Whether you are a donor, partner or ambassador: thank you for contributing!
Read this article in Dutch.
25 years of Trees for All, 25 highlights
It is with great pleasure that we look back on the past year. Because although the news stories around climate change and the loss of nature are worrying, together we have achieved a lot of positive things for more forest in the world.
1. Throughout 2024, we planted almost 2 million trees around the world: 1,883,644 trees to be exact! We were able to do this thanks to your support and that of all our partners at home and abroad. Fantastic!
2. Our 25th anniversary was surely the biggest milestone. We celebrated this in a special way: for the first time in the history of Trees for All, you could plant your own tree by name. This fulfilled a wish of many donors!
3. Together with over 400 enthusiastic donors, we planted the Jubilee Forest in North Brabant during three festive tree-planting days. Our anniversary wish was to plant 25,000 trees; it turned out to be more than 57,000!
4. And there were even more moments when we put on our boots to plant trees: in 2024, we organised 26 tree-planting days throughout the Netherlands with more than a thousand tree-planters!
5. Of all the trees, we planted half in the Netherlands. There, we supported 37 projects: from new forest in Friesland to greening the countryside in South Limburg for more habitat for the endangered acorn mouse.
6. The other half of the trees went into the ground abroad, where we supported 18 projects in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. New was our project in Ethiopia, where we help farming families transition to sustainable forest agriculture.
7. In Tanzania, we started our own project together with PAMS Foundation. We are committed to forest restoration, forest agriculture as well as forest protection in the impressive Nguru Mountains. We expect this project to be certified in early 2025 by Plan Vivo, an international standard for CO2 compensation projects we work with.
8. Speaking of CO2, through our certified projects in Bolivia, Mexico, and Ethiopia, we captured 118,127 tons of CO2 in 2024. Besides absorbing CO2, the trees also enhance biodiversity and improve living conditions for local communities.
9. Throughout the year, we received support from more than 2,000 businesses, ranging from large corporate organizations to start-ups and freelancers. We’re proud that they joined us in contributing to more trees worldwide!
10. For example, we began a partnership with ASML. Over the coming years, this international high-tech company will plant 455,000 trees with us in the Brabant region.
11. Thanks to a new collaboration with coffee roastery Brute Bonen, the coffee beans from our forest project in Bolivia are now available in the Netherlands. A delicious way to start the new year!
12. We also continued our ReNature program. In collaboration with Arla and BoerenNatuur, we’re helping farmers plant trees and shrubs on their farms to boost biodiversity.
13. Another highlight was the moment the first trees were planted for the De Groene Stelling project. This initiative involves societal organizations, farmers, entrepreneurs, and residents working together for a greener landscape around Amsterdam.
14. More urban news came from Utrecht, where we’ll plant additional trees to combat heat stress, among other things. We kicked off the partnership in a green way and handed the first tree to Sharon Dijksma, the mayor of Utrecht.
15. Meanwhile, we visited the Bolivian Andes, where we’re planting trees with local communities to address water shortages in the region. And we saw firsthand that it works: thanks to the trees, water is slowly returning to the area!
16. Exciting news came from Mexico, where we are restoring mangrove forests. A manatee with its calf was spotted in our project area! This underlines the importance of mangrove restoration for local biodiversity.
17. In Central Vietnam, thanks to our project, several specimens of an almost extinct tree – Lithocarpus concentricus – are growing again. We will continue this work next year.
18. Greening also happened on a local scale. With our GroenDoen Fund, we made 40 greening projects possible thanks to our partners Vandebron, Univé Buurtfonds and ASML.
19. With our schools programme Trees for Schools, we join hands with mbo students to take action for green school grounds. We have already greened 10 school grounds and reached around 1,500 mbo students with this programme!
20. In April, we celebrated Earth Day, the perfect day to do something good for the planet. And what better idea than donating a tree? Thanks to this campaign, we planted 6,948 extra trees.
21. We want to spread the word about the importance of tree planting as widely as possible. That’s why we’re proud of our new ambassadors: Jennifer Hoffman, the band Son Mieux, actor Egbert-Jan Weeber, and impact expert Babette Porcelijn, who are helping us.
22. The same goes for our new patron, Princess Margarita. She helps raise awareness about the importance of trees. Additionally, her design studio, De Parme Design, supports our work by donating part of its proceeds to our projects.
23. Beyond planting trees, there are other ways to take action for the climate. For instance, our colleagues biked 250 kilometers for the climate during the Cycling for Climate event.
24. Creative tree campaigns were also launched through our action platform. Take the Tree Running Hunk, who ran the Rotterdam Marathon dressed as a tree and raised over €2,800—enough for 573 trees!
25. Finally, in November, for the sixth year in a row, we countered the shopping frenzy around Black Friday with our Green Friday campaign. 650 people downloaded our Decision Tree to make more sustainable purchasing choices. Companies also participated and planted trees, including Kaartje2Go, MyWheels, Natuurhuisje, Via Vai, A. Vogel, the municipality of Amsterdam and Dille & Kamille.
Our new ambassadors Jennifer Hoffman, Egbert-Jan Weeber, Son Mieux and patron Princess Margarita
Thank you!
We are grateful for every kind of support we received last year. Only together can we ensure a better climate, more biodiversity and a healthy environment worldwide. Hopefully, we can count on your involvement again in the new year!