In Italy, reforestation is no longer just a symbolic good deed: it is an investment that pays for itself in 4–5 years and continues to generate benefits for decades. This is the message of the 2024 Forest Atlas, the fifth edition of the report curated by Legambiente with the technical support of AzzeroCO₂ and Compagnia delle Foreste, which provides a snapshot of the state of forestation in the country.
Three million trees “worth” 20 million per year
In 2024 alone (including plantings completed by March 2025), 3,150,935 trees were planted across 3,957 hectares in Italy, spanning urban, peri-urban and rural contexts. The report recorded 294 public and private tree-planting projects.
Applying a methodology based on more than 3,700 international scientific studies on ecosystems, the Atlas translates into economic terms what trees do for us “for free”: they improve air quality, mitigate heatwaves, reduce the risk of flooding and soil erosion, absorb CO₂, and offer spaces for social interaction and wellbeing.
The result is striking: the new woodlands and green areas established in 2024 will generate ecosystem services worth €20,663,511 each year, for the entire lifespan of the plantations—which can easily exceed thirty years.
In economic terms, forestation is no longer an “environmental cost” but a green infrastructure: the benefits it generates repay the initial investment within a few years, while natural capital continues to work for the community.
Public sector on the rise, private sector slowing down
2024 marks a reversal of the previous year’s trend: interventions funded with public money increased by 31%, while projects supported by companies and other private entities declined sharply.
Across Italy’s regions, the situation is patchy:
- eight regional administrations (including Abruzzo, Calabria, Campania, Sicily, Tuscany and Umbria) reported no new plantings financed between autumn 2024 and spring 2025, largely due to the transition between the closure of the 2014–2022 Rural Development Programme and the operational launch of the new 2023–2027 CAP regional measures.
- In Trentino-Alto Adige and Basilicata, however, planting continues thanks to provincial and municipal funds and the latest RDP calls, confirming these areas on the podium for the second consecutive year; Veneto climbs the rankings as one of the few regions to have already activated the new CSR 23–27 measures.
The private sector tells a very different story: in 2024, companies funded the planting of only 40,852 trees a 72% collapse compared to the more than 146,000 of 2023. The area involved fell from 153.6 hectares to just 42.7.
The report’s authors suggest this is not an environmental retreat by businesses, but rather a diversification of investments towards regeneration and biodiversity projects that do not necessarily involve new tree planting (such as ecological restoration, rewilding, or interventions in existing habitats).
Southern metropolitan cities take the lead with the NRRP
A separate chapter covers the metropolitan cities, where the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) has acted as an accelerator. Funds from measure M2-C4-I3.1 financed urban, peri-urban and rural forestation interventions in 13 cities, aiming to plant at least 1.65 million trees.
According to the Atlas, around 75% of the projects approved for funding in 2022 completed the transplanting phase on site by the end of 2024.
Southern cities stand out in particular:
- Messina has transplanted all 447,612 planned trees,
- Reggio Calabria has exceeded 154,000,
- Rome has planted more than 262,000 trees, with interventions reshaping the urban landscape and providing a tangible response to increasingly intense heatwaves.
Not all cities are moving at the same pace: some completed plantings in previous years, others are still in the nursery phase or behind schedule. The positive takeaway is that the urban forestation mechanism linked to the NRRP has largely been set in motion, shifting the centre of gravity of greenery towards the areas most affected by the climate crisis.
From the Atlas to the territories: stories of forests that heal
Behind the numbers are communities trying to reinvent themselves through trees. The report gathers several case studies showing how forestation can become a tool for social as well as environmental regeneration.
- In Palermo, the Bosco dei Sette Cieli is emerging as a true food forest of 1,800 trees and shrubs belonging to 40 different species: an edible woodland that produces food, hosts wildlife and creates a natural barrier against wind and fires.
- In Sardinia, in Cuglieri (Montiferru), a project supported by Fastweb is taking place in an area devastated by the 2021 wildfires, which destroyed around 12,000 hectares of woodland and historic olive groves. Here, forestation is not just offsetting—it is an act of memory and rebirth.lo compensazione, ma un’operazione di memoria e rinascita.
These examples demonstrate that “ecosystem value” is measured not only in euros per hectare, but also in social cohesion, local identity, and new economic opportunities linked to tourism, agroecology and environmental education.
Trees as public health infrastructure
In his introductory comment to the Atlas, Legambiente’s director general, Giorgio Zampetti, emphasises that trees in cities should now be regarded as genuine public health infrastructure: they can lower ground temperatures by up to 8°C, reduce the use of air conditioning by 20–50%, trap PM10 and ozone, and mitigate the “heat island” effect typical of urban areas.
Yet, the report warns that without a strong, continuous national strategy on urban greenery—especially after the NRRP phase—it will be difficult to meet European targets such as planting 3 billion trees by 2030.
The challenge of the coming years
The 2024 Forest Atlas leaves a clear message:
- planting trees works-from a climate, economic and social perspective;
- the public sector is playing an increasingly important role;
- private contributions must be revived, possibly by creating clearer and more credible instruments such as forest carbon credits and “nature credits” for biodiversity;
- accurate planning and long-term management are essential, because a failed plantation not only fails to help the climate but leaves behind the emissions generated to establish it.
For those managing cities and territories, for businesses and citizens, the message is simple: it is not enough to plant trees, they must be grown well. When this happens, the three million new canopies planted in 2024 prove that greenery is not a luxury, but one of the smartest infrastructures we can deploy for the future of the country.
