WE benefit from trees – they give shade and fruit, reduce flooding, clean the air, support swings and supply wood. Above all they take CO2 out of the atmosphere, give us oxygen and store the carbon for years – the same way that coal was formed in the past.

It’s not surprising then that the UN set a target of a billion new trees in 2006, and it was soon passed.

Our own successful Forest of Bradford, a part of the Bradford Environmental Action Trust, has been planting for ten years now, and recently passed 600,000. Details of 2017 planting locations are on their website (beat.org.uk).

Internationally there are now efforts to set world records for tree planting and the competition is remarkable with Pakistan planting 847,225 trees in 24 hours, in 2013, only to pass this with 100,000 seedlings in one hour a year later.

Ecuador took over in 2015 when 44,000 people planted 647,250 trees in 24 hours, while last November Indonesians planted over 232,000 in one hour. A little earlier 100 planters in Bhutan had managed 49,672 in the same time.

Impressively India has committed more than £5 billion to tree planting alongside roads and boundaries. Last July 800,000 folk, Leeds population plus, planted 50 million trees in 24 hours so setting a record that will be difficult to challenge. However they’ll have more opportunities as the target is now over two billion more trees in India alone in the next twenty years.

Europe mustn’t lag behind the countries that are setting the pace, and the Manchester area is aiming for one tree per person, three million, and regenerating eight square miles of woodland, in the next twenty years.

Locally I look forward to the day when our moors revert to their natural tree cover and Sheffield stops cutting down its street trees.