# Stiftung Unternehmen Wald

> Hamburg foundation funding climate-stable mixed-forest planting on bark-beetle damaged land across Germany

Source: https://treerm.org/org/stiftung-unternehmen-wald · Updated 2026-11-08 · Data license: CC BY 4.0 (https://treerm.org/about#license)

## Facts

- Type: Nonprofit
- Scope: National
- Headquarters: Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
- Founded: 2006
- Website: https://www.wald.de
- Donate: https://www.wald.de/baeume-pflanzen/
- Countries where they plant: Brazil, Germany, Nigeria, Nepal
- Activity types: Reforestation (primary), Agroforestry, Education & advocacy
- Trees on record: 2,000,000 (larger of latest cumulative figure and sum of annual figures; trees planted or distributed)

## About

Stiftung Unternehmen Wald is a charitable civil-law foundation established in Hamburg in 2006 by Rüdiger Kruse that uses tree donations and corporate sponsorship to fund the replanting of storm- and bark-beetle-damaged forest and the conversion of conifer monocultures into species-rich native mixed forest, working with forest owners in the Harz, Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Hamburg and Baden-Württemberg. It reports more than 2 million trees planted in Germany since its founding (as of 2026), with recent seasons including 22,600 trees at the Granetalsperre near Goslar (2026), 10,000 at Ennepetal (spring 2025) and over 41,000 in Herzogtum Lauenburg (2023/24); it also supports small fruit-tree and agroforestry plantings in Nepal, Nigeria and Brazil, flower meadows and a Streuobstwiese. In 2025 it bought a nine-hectare forest at Hanstedt south of Hamburg. Staffing is shared with the Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald, Landesverband Hamburg.

## Programs

- **Baumspende / Pflanzprojekte Deutschland** — Reforestation: Donor-funded planting of native broadleaves and some conifers on damaged forest land in the Harz, NRW (Ennepetal), Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse and around Freiburg; completed projects are documented per season. https://www.wald.de/unsere-pflanzprojekte/
- **Internationale Pflanzprojekte (Nepal, Nigeria, Brazil)** — Agroforestry: Fruit- and food-tree plantings with local partners, e.g. 7,250 trees in Dhading (Nepal), a school tree nursery in Awka (Nigeria) and 2,000 seedlings of food forest on two hectares in Minas Gerais (Brazil) in December 2025. https://www.wald.de/baeume-pflanzen/baumspende-nepal/

## Metrics

> Note: The foundation publishes per-project tree counts by planting season rather than an annual total; season figures here are my sums of the stated per-project minimums on its projects page (2023/24 at least 105,000; 2024/25 at least 37,500; 2025/26 at least 33,300 incl. 22,600 in the Harz and 2,000 seedlings in Brazil). The only aggregate is 'more than 2 million trees since 2006 (as of 2026)'. Finances are reported on a calendar-year basis (2024 income EUR 611,892).

| Metric | Year | Value | Cumulative | Program | Confidence | Source |
|---|---|---:|---|---|---|---|
| Funds raised (USD) | 2024 | 661,000 | no (that year) | organization-wide | Estimated | [source](https://www.wald.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/finanzbericht_2024.pdf) Finanzbericht 2024: 'Einnahmen 2024: 611.892,44 EUR', 'Ausgaben 2024: 816.414,82 EUR' (calendar year; planting season Nov-Apr so costs only partly included). Converted at approx. 1.08 USD/EUR (2024 average). |
| Trees planted | 2026 | 2,000,000 | yes (to date) | organization-wide | Self-reported | [source](https://www.wald.de/ueber-die-stiftung/) 'Über die Stiftung' page: 'Seit der Gründung wurden mehr als 2 Millionen Bäume in Deutschland gepflanzt (Stand 2026)'. |
| Trees planted | 2024 | 105,000 | no (that year) | Baumspende / Pflanzprojekte Deutschland | Estimated | [source](https://www.wald.de/unsere-pflanzprojekte/) Planting season 2023/24 (Nov 2023-Apr 2024), my sum of the per-project minimums on the projects page: Celle >14,000 + Herzogtum Lauenburg >41,000 + Ennepetal 20,000 + Harz Granetalsperre >30,000 = at least 105,000 trees. Minimum because several entries say 'mehr als'. |
| Trees planted | 2025 | 37,500 | no (that year) | Baumspende / Pflanzprojekte Deutschland | Estimated | [source](https://www.wald.de/unsere-pflanzprojekte/) Planting season 2024/25, my sum of stated per-project counts: Grünhof >6,000 + Ennepetal 10,000 + Harz Goslar >15,000 + Schallstadt ~6,500 = at least 37,500 trees (drone-seeded 3 ha in the Harz excluded; Jahresbericht 2025 p.4 confirms 10,000 trees at Ennepetal in spring 2025). |

Confidence labels: self-reported means the organization published the figure itself; independently verified means a third party confirmed it; estimated means TreeRM worked it out, and the note says how.

## Links

- x: https://twitter.com/unternehmenwald
- facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wald.de

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