page_title: Afforestation
section_title: Israel
hierarchical_section_title: Afforestation / Countries and regions / Israel
caption_attribution_description: English: Jewish National Fund trees planted in The Negev desert.
context_page_description: Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no previous tree cover.
  Many government and non-governmental organizations directly engage in programs of afforestation to create forests, increase carbon capture.
  Sometimes special tools, such as a tree planting bar, are used to make planting of trees easier and faster.
  The rate of net forest loss decreased substantially over the period 1990–2020 due to a reduction in deforestation in some countries, plus increases in forest area in others through afforestation and the natural expansion of forests.
context_section_description: With over 240 million planted trees, Israel is one of only two countries that entered the 21st century with a net gain in the number of trees, due to massive afforestation efforts. Most Israeli forests are the product of a major afforestation campaign by the Jewish National Fund (JNF).
  Critics argue that many JNF lands inside the West Bank were illegally confiscated from Palestinian refugees, and that the JNF furthermore should not be involved with lands in the West Bank. Shaul Ephraim Cohen has claimed that trees have been planted to restrict Bedouin herding. Susan Nathan wrote that forests were planted on the site of abandoned Arab villages after the 1948 war.
  Since 2009, the JNF has provided the Palestinian Authority with 3,000 tree seedlings for a forested area being developed on the edge of the new city of Rawabi, north of Ramallah.
caption: JNF trees in the Negev Desert.  Man-made dunes (here a liman) help keep in rainwater, creating an oasis.
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