Looking back on 2023: results and highlights

We’re starting off the new year with fantastic news. Thanks to the support of all our donors and partners, in 2023 we were once again able to plant a record number of trees: more than 2 million! We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who has contributed to this achievement. In this video, we look back on the highlights of 2023.

A year filled with milestones

For us, 2023 was a successful year with many milestones. We received a record number of donations, which meant we could plant almost 2.004.590 trees. In December, we even planted the 10 millionth tree since our foundation!

Another special event was the start of our new schools programme, which helps to raise youngsters’ awareness of the importance of trees. A further highlight came in December, when we got the key to our new office. And in the new year, there’ll be plenty to celebrate too, as it’s the 25th anniversary of Trees for All!

Worldwide and broad impact

As a charity, we aim to make an impact worldwide. This impact concerns far more than just the number of trees we plant: that’s only the first step. What counts is the long-term effects and results of our projects. Trees for All aims to plant trees that benefit future generations, and to restore nature in order to combat further climate change and the loss of biodiversity. A green and healthy planet for everyone – that’s what motivates us.

We collaborate with project partners all over the world on planting trees and realising reforestation projects. We do so on the basis of a clear vision and integral approach, which includes planting trees that belong to a specific ecosystem, thus promoting natural biodiversity. We also ensure that local communities participate in the projects. And equally important, we focus on themes like fire prevention, water management, and training and education for the local population. In short, we do far more than ‘just’ planting trees!

The Netherlands is becoming greener

Last year, we facilitated 18 projects in the Netherlands. From Groningen to Limburg, we planted new forests, restored existing forests, created food forests and planted trees in rural areas. So we contributed in all sorts of ways to adding more forests and trees to the Netherlands.

We also supported 38 local greening projects through our GroenDoen Fonds. Thanks to support from Vandebron and our new partner Univé Buurtfonds, we were able to help even more initiators to green their own surroundings. For instance, our financial contribution helped residents of Haaksbergen to plant a beautiful experience forest, complete with food forest and picking garden.

Trees for Schools

Another highlight was the launch of our new schools programme: Trees for Schools. In this programme, experts give climate lessons to senior secondary vocational education (mbo) students, and help them design and implement a plan for greening their school premises. This month, the first trees and shrubs are going into the ground at schools, which means the pilot at the first three schools has nearly come to an end. And a successful end, too, because ten new schools will be able to take part in the coming year!

Impact from Bolivia to Borneo

Our impact is not restricted to the Netherlands, however. In 2023, we supported 4 new projects abroad. And we paid visits to the projects in Vietnam, Costa Rica, Borneo, Sulawesi, Tanzania, Spain and Portugal. This is something we do every two years, in principle, as it allows us to follow the progress of the projects and adjust them where necessary.

The daily practice of planting trees is by no means a simple one. Last year, various project partners had to cope with extreme drought and fire risks as a result of El Niño. We therefore gave extra support to some of the projects.

On Borneo, for example, we saw with our own eyes the looming danger of forest fires. Our project partner Borneo Nature Foundation works with local volunteers on fire-fighting and fire prevention, to protect the forest. We therefore made a donation for extra materials and training, so that more volunteers can help and enough extinguishers are available.

Wide support from society

It’s only thanks to our donors that we’re able to realise all our projects. In 2023, we received support from 2,030 businesses. Several of them have been our partners for a long time already, including ANWB, Jaarbeurs, Accenture, ENGIE, Bever, Lowlander, Arriva, DHL, a.s.r., Sogeti, Zwitserleven and Synchroon. It’s wonderful to see how each business takes their own unique approach to reforesting the world.

Another special event was the launch of our partnership with Arla and BoerenNatuur. Through Arla’s ReNature programme, we give dairy farmers the opportunity to plant trees and shrubs on their land, in order to increase the biodiversity of the Netherlands. And we celebrated another milestone with our partner Hotels for Trees. This foundation collaborates with hotels throughout the world, planting a tree each time a guest chooses to skip the daily room cleaning. Through this scheme, Hotels for Trees has already donated more than 250,000 trees. And the number continues to grow every day!

Besides the support of businesses, we could also count on contributions from private donors. They supported us in many different ways, by planting trees, for example, or by offsetting their carbon emissions through us. And people also set up dozens of unique campaigns to collect money for trees for us. Hundreds of kilometres were run, rowed and cycled for Trees for All. One example was the Climate Classic, a national cycle tour of 400 kilometres in total, in which some of our own colleagues took part as well.

Raising awareness

Besides planting trees, we want to make as many people as possible aware of the importance of trees for our climate and our world. One of the ways we did this was through our Green Friday campaign in November. Over 2,700 people and businesses joined our Green Friday movement to make a collective statement against overconsumption on Black Friday. To voice this opposition even louder, we also joined forces with around 200 donors to plant a Green Friday Forest in the nature reserve Het Twiske.

And finally, we welcomed several new ambassadors in 2023, including Melissa Drost, Egbert-Jan Weeber and Niek van den Adel. Along with Sanne Vogel, Elize Been, Louise Vet, Reinier van den Berg and Team DSM, they make an invaluable contribution to communicating our mission. And in the new year, we’re expecting to welcome some more special ambassadors as well. To be continued!

Grateful

Whether you’re a donor, a project partner, a volunteer or an ambassador with us, we could never have achieved all these great results without your commitment. So thank you! It gives us every confidence in continuing our important work in 2024. We hope you’ll be joining us again then.