Ecological rainfall infrastructure: investment in trees for sustainable development

In many parts of the world local people are convinced that forests, trees and rainfall are related in more than one way: forests and trees not only depend on rainfall but help to generate it. Scientists confronted with this perspective have always denied such effects, or at best been ‘agnostic’, as it seemed impossible in their data to find evidence. New evidence on credible mechanisms for forest and tree effects on rainfall is, however, emerging. It can revolutionize current climate negotiations that all focus on greenhouse gas emissions.