If you've ever planted a tree on Earth Day and wondered if it actually does anything, China has an answer that might surprise you. China's Three-North Shelterbelt Program, launched in 1978 to hold back the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts, has resulted in some 66 billion trees planted to date, according to Live Science's coverage of the research. According to a new 2026 study published in Geophysical Research Letters, these human-planted forests are now growing faster than the forests nature made on its own.
The researchers used satellite records of leaf area index, a canopy-density proxy linked to carbon uptake, and found that planted forests expanded their leaf area 66% faster than natural forests. Even after adjusting for age and growing conditions, the planted stands still outpaced natural ones by 4.6%, with the strongest gains in mixed and evergreen forests.
