A forest predominantly composed of trees established through planting and/or deliberate seeding that lacks key elements of a natural forest native to the area, such as species composition and structural diversity.

• Tree plantations generally have one or a few tree species and tend to include one or more of the following characteristics:
  1. planted on cleared land
  2. harvested regularly
  3. trees are of even ages
  4. products from the plantation are managed and processed for commercial production
• Tree plantations can consist of trees planted for timber, pulp, non-timber forest products (eg, rubber latex), or ecosystem services (eg, soil stabilisation). Plantations dominated by agricultural species (eg, fruits or oil palm) are considered agriculture, not tree plantations.
• There exist a range of ‘boundary cases’ where sites have some characteristics of tree plantations and some characteristics of natural forests. Please see the Operational Guidance on Applying the Definitions Related to Deforestation and Conversion for more information on such cases.