Almost 3.7 million new trees planted in Italia in 2025 (+17 per cent)
They will generate benefits of 27.8 million euros a year. Metropolitan cities have stepped up their use of PNRR funds
The number of trees planted each year in our country continues to rise. Between spring 2025 and spring 2026, almost 3.7 million trees were planted, 17 per cent more than the previous year. Over a four-year period (from spring 2022), more than 12 million trees were planted across an area of 16,889 hectares.
The picture is painted by the Forest Atlas, a report compiled for Monday’s edition of *Il Sole 24 Ore* by AzzeroCO2 (a sustainability and energy consultancy) and Legambiente, in collaboration with the Compagnia delle Foreste, now in its sixth edition.
The economic benefits
New green infrastructure recoups the initial investment within four or five years of planting, after which it continues to generate positive benefits for decades. As in previous reports, the Atlas does not merely catalogue urban and extra-urban afforestation projects but, by applying the methodology developed by AzzeroCO2 with the support of ISPRA (the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research), quantifies the economic benefits generated by the plantations. The positive effects are manifold and range from mitigating climate change (plants absorb CO₂, the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming) to preventing hydrogeological instability. Green spaces also regulate air quality, mitigate extreme weather events, reduce soil erosion, produce raw materials and food, and boost tourism and recreational activities.
A quantification of the benefits reveals that the trees planted in 2025 (the period under consideration always runs from spring to spring and therefore, for 2025, from spring 2025 to spring 2026) will generate 27.8 million euros per year for each year of the trees’ lifespan. And, if we consider the positive effects produced by the trees planted between 2022 and 2026, the economic value exceeds 88 million euros per year.
The impetus of the NRRP
The growth in tree planting over the last two years has been driven primarily by initiatives undertaken by metropolitan cities, which have stepped up their use of PNRR funds ahead of the 30 June 2026 deadline. The start had in fact been slow, and by 2022 only Turin and Venice had begun work on their projects. Between the spring of 2025 and that of 2026, however, metropolitan cities planted more than 1.4 million trees – four times the number recorded the previous year. Most of the planting (59 per cent) was carried out by Turin and Rome.
