Conservationists Harness Ancient Plant–Fungi Partnerships to Restore Forests and Fight Climate Change

Conservationists Harness Ancient Plant–Fungi Partnerships to Restore Forests and Fight Climate Change

In the quiet soil beneath our feet, an ancient alliance is shaping the future of conservation. Across the world, scientists and environmentalists are turning to the millennia-old relationships between plants and fungi to restore ecosystems, reduce fertilizer use, and capture more carbon, all in the fight against climate change.

These microscopic partners, known as mycorrhizal fungi, have been working with plants for over 400 million years. The fungi form intricate underground networks that connect roots across vast areas, exchanging nutrients and information in what some researchers call the “wood wide web.”

Now, conservationists are rediscovering this natural technology, not as a relic of the past, but as a key to repairing the planet’s future.

The Secret Beneath the Soil

Mycorrhizal fungi live symbiotically with more than 90% of plant species. In this partnership, plants provide fungi with sugars produced through photosynthesis. In return, the fungi deliver water and essential nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, from the soil, while also helping plants resist disease and drought.

“This relationship is one of nature’s oldest and most successful collaborations,” explains Dr. Fiona Green, a soil ecologist at the University of Exeter. “By working with these fungi rather than against them, we can grow healthier forests and crops while using far fewer chemical inputs.”

Reforesting the Right Way

In restoration projects from the Amazon to East Africa, researchers are inoculating tree seedlings with native mycorrhizal fungi before planting them. The results are striking, trees grow faster, survive drought conditions more easily, and establish stronger root systems.

In degraded tropical lands where soil has been stripped of nutrients, these fungal partnerships can mean the difference between a thriving forest and a failed planting effort.

“Traditional reforestation often overlooks the microbial life that makes forests resilient,” says Marcos Nascimento, who leads a rewilding initiative in Brazil. “We used to just plant trees and hope for the best. Now we’re rebuilding the underground networks that make forests self-sustaining.”

In Kenya, pilot programs have shown that seedlings treated with native fungi have up to 50% higher survival rates than untreated ones. In Scotland, conservationists restoring native Caledonian pine forests are reintroducing fungal species lost through centuries of overgrazing and acid rain.

Reducing Fertilizer Use

The implications go beyond forests. Mycorrhizal fungi can significantly reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers in agriculture, a crucial step, given that fertilizer production and runoff are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution.

“When you support natural fungal networks, crops access nutrients more efficiently,” says Dr. Jamal Hassan, an agronomist working on sustainable farming in Morocco. “Farmers can use 30–40% less fertilizer and still get the same or better yields.”

In some regions, soil health programs are training farmers to incorporate fungal inoculants into their planting cycles, combining ancient biological wisdom with modern science.

Carbon Capture Powerhouses

Perhaps most importantly, fungi play a massive, and often overlooked, role in the global carbon cycle. By helping plants grow stronger and store more carbon in their roots, and by stabilizing organic matter underground, mycorrhizal fungi act as a natural carbon sink.

A 2023 study in Nature estimated that these underground fungal networks store the equivalent of over a third of global fossil fuel emissions annually, more carbon than the entire Amazon rainforest. Protecting and restoring them could thus be one of the most cost-effective ways to mitigate climate change.

“Fungal conservation is climate action,” says Dr. Green. “Every time we disturb the soil or destroy native ecosystems, we’re not just losing trees, we’re losing the invisible allies that make carbon storage possible.”

The Future of a Forgotten Partnership

Despite their importance, fungi receive just a fraction of global conservation funding compared to plants and animals. That’s slowly changing, as organizations like the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) and the Fungi Foundation campaign for the recognition of fungi as critical to the planet’s health.

In the coming years, many scientists believe that integrating fungal ecology into reforestation, farming, and climate policy could revolutionize how we approach environmental restoration.

“These partnerships worked for hundreds of millions of years before we came along,” Dr. Green said. “The smartest thing we can do now is to listen to them, and let them help heal what we’ve broken.”
By reviving the ancient symbiosis between plants and fungi, conservationists are uncovering one of nature’s most powerful tools, a living network that can restore forests, reduce pollution, and help cool the planet, one root at a time.