GlobalUsefulNativeTrees: useful tree species

The GlobalUsefulNativeTrees database (GlobUNT; https://worldagroforestry.org/output/globalusefulnativetrees) was developed after a first step of combining native distribution data across 242 countries and territories from GlobalTreeSearch (accessed 8th May 2022; Beech et al. 2017; BGCI 2022) with information on ten categories of human usage documented in the World Checklist of Useful Plant Species (WCUPS; Diazgranados et al. 2020). GlobUNT was described in more detail in the following publication: Kindt et al. (2023) GlobalUsefulNativeTrees, a database of 14,014 tree species, supports synergies between biodiversity recovery and local livelihoods in restoration. Sci Rep 13, 12640. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-39552-1. Version v.2023.01 of the database includes 14,014 useful tree species, representing roughly a quarter of the known tree species (as listed by GlobalTreeSearch) and a third of the plant species from WCUPS. The data set included here provides the taxonomic names for all tree species included in GlobUNT together with details on the process of standardization via the WorldFlora package (Kindt 2020). This taxonomic standardization process was completed during the preparation of the third major release of the Agroforestry Species Switchboard (as a consequence, all species listed in GlobUNT are included among the 230,000+ species from the Switchboard).

For the updated version of GlobUNT released in May 2026, the list of species was modified by:

Adding 71 species that were listed both in GlobalTreeSearch (version 1.6 as used when developing the first version of GlobUNT) and the WCUPS, as discovered through the new standardizations of species names when developing version 4 of the Agroforestry Species Switchboard (see Kindt et al. 2025). The identifies of these species can be found from the entries of 'Added 2026' in the field of 'Selection'.

Adding Cordia megalantha, which was the only species that was still missing from the Top 830 list of tree species prioritized for planting in the tropics and subtropics (see Kindt et al. 2021 or this Zenodo archive).

Removing Canarium schweinfurtii (wfo-0000583735) and treating it as a spelling variant of Canarium schweinfurthii (wfo-0001328093). In the 2023 list, it was listed with SEQ = 2187 and had been added via the TOP830+ selections. 

Version 2026.05 includes updated information from World Flora Online (WFO), now reflecting matches with version v.2023.12 of its taxonomic backbone (https://www.worldfloraonline.org/downloadData; this is the same version as used for the current version of the Agroforestry Species Switchboard). Whereas not all species could be matched with WFO in the 2023 version, now all species could be matched with a WFO record.

Funding

The development of GlobUNT was funded by the Darwin Initiative to project DAREX001 of Developing a Global Biodiversity Standard certification for tree-planting and restoration, by Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative through the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia to the Provision of Adequate Tree Seed Portfolio project in Ethiopia, by the Green Climate Fund through the IUCN-led Transforming the Eastern Province of Rwanda through Adaptation project and through the Readiness proposal on Climate Appropriate Portfolios of Tree Diversity for Burkina Faso, by the Bezos Earth Fund to the Bezos Quality Tree Seed for Africa in Kenya and Rwanda project and by the German International Climate Initiative (IKI) to the regional tree seed programme on The Right Tree for the Right Place for the Right Purpose in Africa.