Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no forest.
Reforestation is the reestablishment of forest cover, either naturally (by natural seeding, coppice, or root suckers) or artificially (by direct seeding or planting). Many governments and non-governmental organizations directly engage in programs of
afforestation to create forests, increase
carbon capture and
sequestration, and help to anthropogenically improve
biodiversity. (In the UK, afforestation may mean converting the legal status of some land to "
royal forest".) Special tools, e.g.
tree planting bar, are used to make planting of trees easier and faster.