News published: 21 February 2023

Trees are of exceptional ecological importance, playing a major functional role in the world’s ecosystems, while also supporting many other plants, animals and fungi. The conservation status of these tree species is therefore of key importance to planning management strategies and prioritising actions. With the publication of the results from the Global Tree Assessment, we now have knowledge about the threat level for tree species globally. 

 A special issue of Plants, People, Planet , with guest editors Malin Rivers, Chuck Cannon (Morton Arboretum), Anurag Dhyani (GTSG member) & Chen Jin (Xishuangbanna BG), is highlighting key achievements of the Global Tree Assessment, implication of results, lessons learned, and evaluate future steps. Articles will focus on specific geographic regions or taxonomic groups, detailing progress and pitfalls. In this special issue, twelve articles provide a multi-faceted view of the impact of the Global Tree Assessment, how we might improve and accelerate future assessments, and how the information can be used to address issues facing ecosystem restoration.  The articles include a number of different scales, from national assessments of highly diverse floras (Barstow et al. 2022; Carrero et al. 2022, Chua et al. 2022; Samain et al. 2022) to a single protected area (Rønsted et al. 2022), from a taxonomic focus on taxonomic families (Erkens et al. 2022; Linsky et al. 2022; Verspagen and Erkens 2022) to selected but completely known groups (Hills et al. 2022), and even specific practical issues involved in the restoration of an endangered species (Dhyani et al. 2022). It also includes a review article, issuing a warning to humanity about the impact of tree extinctions. This article was written by many of the Global Tree Assessment contributors highlighting how tree species extinction will lead to the loss of many other plants and animals and significantly alter the world’s ecosystems. We also show how tree extinction will negatively affect billions of people through loss of livelihoods and benefits (Rivers et al. 2022).