Planting one billion trees transforms New Zealand forests in a way that improves land productivity. It helps New Zealand’s natural environment by:
The One Billion Trees programme is transforming our forestry sector. It enables lasting economic growth and development in regional New Zealand. This will create jobs and different income opportunities.
The programme helps us to:
The programme provides opportunities for Māori to get the most out of their land and resources. It supports tourism and infrastructure development by improving and protecting landscapes.
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The One Billion Trees progress chart shows the latest update as of 30 September 2024.
The number of trees planted since the One Billion Trees Programme was announced in 2018, to September 2024 is 698,395,000.
The One Billion Trees fund has directly funded 40,723,000 trees for planting between 2018 and 2028.
Find out more about progress made towards planting one billion trees
The One Billion Trees Programme isn't just about numbers. We're making sure the right trees are planted in the right places for the right purpose.
We encourage both permanent and plantation forests made up of exotic and native tree species. The programme encourages the planting of native species to improve biodiversity.
We want to see trees integrated into the landscape to complement and diversify our existing land uses, rather than see large-scale land conversion to forestry. We also want the trees planted to be suitable for the site and their intended use. To do this we align tree planting with local land-use and planting priorities and strategies.
We're making sure tree planting is well planned and considers the long-term maintenance and end-use of the trees. Commercial viability for production forests and protection for permanent forests should be thought through before planting. We also want to make sure plantings take local social, environmental, cultural, and economic priorities into account.
The role of Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service in the programme is to support and enable New Zealanders to plant more of the right trees, in the right places, for the right purpose. To achieve this, we use:
Government plays a key role as an enabler, but it’s everyday Kiwis who do the planting. Groups across New Zealand provide a lot of support to meeting our goal. To achieve the target of planting one billion trees, we work with:
The One Billion Trees Fund is now closed. The Fund provided direct grants to those wanting to plant trees. It enabled organisations to partner with us to increase tree planting initiatives. We continue to work with funding recipients and others who want to:
Read more about the One Billion Trees Fund
Matariki Tu Rākau was funded under the One Billion Trees programme. The Matariki Tu Rākau programme supported communities to plant trees to honour New Zealand’s heroes.
Find out more about the Matariki Tu Rākau programme
One Billion Trees Fund annual monitoring and evaluation report 2022-2023 [PDF, 756 KB]
One Billion Trees Fund annual monitoring and evaluation report 2021-2022 [PDF, 742 KB]
One Billion Trees Fund: 30 month monitoring and evaluation report [PDF, 1.9 MB]
One Billion Trees Fund: Report on policy and design recommendations [PDF, 825 KB]
One Billion Trees Programme: Cabinet paper [PDF, 5.4 MB]
Minute of Cabinet decision [PDF, 1.4 MB]
One Billion Trees Evaluation [PDF, 3 MB]
If you have questions about the One Billion Trees programme, email onebilliontreesprogramme@mpi.govt.nz
