Unlike Sweden, Denmark is a major industry when it comes to christmas tree cultivation. More than ten million christmas trees are processed in Denmark annually. The primary purpose of this report is to investigate the technology, treatment and maintenance of christmas trees in Sweden and Denmark, and to find differences in the management between Swedish and Danish christmas tree cultivators. Since an opinion poll has been made, the investigation method mainly used for this report is quantitative. But a qualitative investigation method has also been used to some extent as a few unstructured interviews has occurred while visiting a couple of the cultivators.   63 % of the christmas tree cultivators consider themselves knowledgeable about christmas tree cultivation and 68 % wants to learn more. There is both similarities and differences along those cultivators that has been visited. Obvious similarities has mostly been found when visiting farms engaged in developing christmas trees to a bigger extent. Denmark conducts their maintenance methods with the aim to produce a large amount of high quality Christmas trees. This tendency does also occur in Sweden at, for example, Gunnars Granar located in Degeberga. Gunnar manages his cultivation almost identically to Denmark's management methods. However, the big christmas tree cultivators are still mainly located in Denmark.

The Greening Soweto Tree Planting project in the City of Johannesburg, South Africa, was a greening initiative aimed at ensuring that benefits of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, presented that year in the country, extended beyond the event. In assessing the trees of this project, it was confirmed that the target number of trees consisting mainly of indigenous tree species were planted predominantly as street and park trees in previously disadvantaged areas, traditionally known to have the least trees in the city. The survival rate of the project is estimated to be 43.46%, implying inadequacies in tree planting and management of the project and necessitating guidelines with recommendations to improve tree planting practices in the city. Growth relationship equations for Olea europaea subsp. africana and Searsia lancea were developed and the growth parameter analysis reveals that all trees grow better in parks but C. africana trees should rather be planted on sidewalks than on medians, S. lancea trees should preferably be planted on medians and C. erythrophyllum may be planted on sidewalks or medians as they would grow well in both locations. It is estimated that this project contributed 30 390.11 tCO2 of standing carbon stocks valued at R3 646 812,87 or US$303,901.07 (assuming a CO2 price of US$10.00) in 2017 and could potentially contribute 387 170.93 tCO2 of sequestered carbon stocks valued at R46 460 511,82 or US$3,871,709.32 by 2031 as mitigation action against climate change. A positive connection impacting the growth of the trees has been identified between land use, land cover and maintenance, indicating that the best locations for trees are maintained parks and formal residential areas as well as paved areas where irrigation is provided. The presence of pests and diseases, conflict with overhead structures and roads and a lack of pruning negatively impacted the growth of the trees. Guidelines for new tree planting projects have been developed with recommendations to maintain the canopy cover percentage in the established urban forest, enhance tree planting in the previously disadvantaged regions, improve the survival rate of new tree planting projects and establish community engagement forums to inform future tree planting of the city. / Environmental Sciences / Ph. D. (Environmental Management)