Forests always tell a story. Not only about biodiversity and climate, but also about peoples, denied rights, and often forgotten conflicts. Seven forests by Giorgio Vacchiano takes us on a journey that combines ecology and social justice: from trees planted in Israel and in the Sahara desert to large-scale reforestation in China, from the struggles of Canada’s native communities to the blood-stained wood of Cambodia, Congo, and Liberia. Through emblematic cases—water stolen from Mexican workers to grow avocados, deforestation that sealed Haiti’s fate, fires affecting minorities in the United States—we’ll discover how forests are at the center of crucial battles for survival and human dignity. A global journey that intertwines ecology and social justice, and that questions us about what future we want for nature and for ourselves.

Giorgio Vacchiano is a researcher and lecturer in forest management and planning at the University of Milan. He is involved in science education and communication, has published numerous scientific papers, and in 2018 was included by Nature magazine among the 11 best emerging scientists who are “making their mark on science.” He is a member of the SISEF (Società Italiana di Selvicoltura ed Ecologia Forestale, Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology), and of the ESA (Ecological Society of America), and the president of the Climate Media Center Italia. In 2019 he published La resilienza del bosco (Mondadori).