South Africa’s one-billion-tree programme is taking root, linking environmental restoration with heritage as communities plant trees to strengthen climate resilience and preserve memory across communities.
Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Bernice Swarts marked Heritage Day at Freedom Park in Tshwane by planting 30 trees as part of the Presidential One Billion Trees Programme.
The planting forms part of a wider national campaign aimed at mobilising government, businesses, civil society, faith-based organisations and communities to contribute towards the longer-term target of one billion trees.
At Freedom Park, the trees are being incorporated into the developing Forest of Freedom, a project designed to rehabilitate a disturbed section of the heritage site while creating a living reminder of South Africa’s journey to democracy.
The project began in 2024 when 30 indigenous trees were planted in remembrance of known and unknown heroes and heroines of the struggle for freedom.
A further 60 trees were planted in 2025 with delegates from an international land restoration workshop, extending the project’s message from national remembrance to global environmental cooperation.
Swarts said the trees being planted at Freedom Park are intended to carry meaning beyond their environmental value.
“These trees will not only contribute to environmental restoration. They will also become part of our history, our freedom and our commitment to future generations.”
The Forest of Freedom is expected to include a walkway, a symbolic tree representing freedom and resilience, and dedicated planting areas for visiting heads of state, embassies and dignitaries.
The project is also expected to include a nursery producing medicinal plants for communities and providing a demonstration space for traditional healers and visitors to Freedom Park.
The wider One Billion Trees Programme was formally launched in May under the theme “My Tree, My Oxygen. Plant Yours Today” and forms part of government’s National Greening Programme.
Government says the programme is intended to support climate resilience, environmental restoration and more sustainable communities.
The initiative builds on the 2025 tree-planting campaign, when more than 1.3 million trees were planted nationally in a single day, exceeding the original target of one million.
The 2026 campaign has raised that ambition significantly, with ten million trees identified as a milestone towards the larger one-billion-tree target.
Priority planting areas include schools, churches, Early Childhood Development Centres, low-income housing developments and other public institutions where infrastructure is available to help trees survive and mature.
Tree species are also being selected according to local climatic and ecological conditions, with researchers and specialists contributing to decisions about suitability.
That approach is important because the success of a large-scale planting campaign ultimately depends not only on how many trees are planted, but how many survive.
Mature trees can provide shade, support biodiversity, improve public spaces and contribute to climate resilience within communities.
The programme also connects environmental action with this year’s Heritage Day message by treating natural spaces as part of the heritage inherited by future generations.
At Freedom Park, that link is particularly visible.
The trees being planted today are intended to restore the environment while simultaneously creating a growing memorial connected to South Africa’s history and democratic journey.
For communities participating around the country, the programme creates an opportunity to contribute directly to environmental restoration rather than experiencing climate action only through policy and government programmes.
The long-term ambition is for millions of individual acts of planting and maintenance to contribute towards a greener and more resilient South Africa.
At Freedom Park, the first measure of success will be simpler: ensuring that the trees planted in remembrance today are still standing for future generations to experience.
