A hectare of drinking-water forest…
… may seem unremarkable at first glance – about the size of one and a half football pitches -, yet great things happen on this area:
Year after year, new clean groundwater is created here 500,000 to 1,200,000 litres more clean groundwater than in pure conifer forests. This is enough to supply 450 to 1,100 people for a year with 3 litres of drinking water per day – families, neighbours, children, friends* and employees who rely on it every day.
By planting broadleaf trees and converting monoculture conifer forests into climate-resilient mixed broadleaf forests, everyone can contribute to their own annual drinking-water needs.
A drinking-water forest is created when, through planting broadleaf trees, a pure conifer forest area is converted back into a diverse mixed broadleaf forest. Its many tree species form an climate-resilient ecosystem, which promotes humus formation, helping to filter and store rainwater particularly well. This is how a drinking-water forest protects our most important basis for life – water. At the same time, it stores carbon, provides shade, cools the area and creates habitats for countless species.
Together, we can plant drinking-water forests that give life and secure the future.
More forest. Water. Values.
- #Forest. Water. Values.
Biodiversity Ampoorter, E. et al. (2020): Tree diversity is key for promoting the diversity and abundance of forest-associated taxa in Europe. Oikos 129(2): 133–146. https://lirias.kuleuven.be/retrieve/86e3e71e-680e-4175-b0b3-694c3a90db74 Europe-wide multi-site study: Tree species diversity systematically promotes the diversity and abundance of associated […]
- #Forest. Water. Values.
Mushrooms are among the oldest living organisms on Earth. Their history goes back more than one billion years – long before the first plants or animals existed. Fossil finds show that mushrooms were already present in the early developmental phases […]
- #Forest. Water. Values.
Trees are true masters of adaptation and survival Their growth is far more than an impressive natural phenomenon – it is the result of a long evolutionary development and the basis for the stability of entire ecosystems. […]