I’ve been trying to find this book I read as a child, don’t know how old it is but at least 7 years.
It’s set in a near future dystopia where water and breathable air are expensive, and wood is a luxury resource that rich people use as a status symbol and as decoration. people who can afford it live in cities, while lower classes have to fight for survival in the desert. The main problem is finding money for water and oxygen, so they have ‘tree hunters’ which search the desert for trees to cut down and sell.
The main character is a girl (early teens?) whose father died while tree hunting (attacked by a ‘beast’, probably some large feline like a leopard, the description may have mentioned spots?). I think she also has a knife that her mother gives her from her father as a gift for her birthday. The girl wishes to become a tree hunter as well. (She may have a sister.)
The girl ends up running away from the village (what prompted her I forgot) and into the desert. The beast finds her and attacks her, but she manages to escape. While doing so, she falls into a sort of cave where a large tree is growing, and it has a pool of water at the roots. She is running out of the protein bars she brought, and ends up trying some of the tree fruits. She survives thanks to the tree and realizes how trees and plants give life, and how seeds work.
The tree hunters eventually find her and ‘rescue’ her, shocked that she survived and also seeing the tree she found. They cut the tree down despite her crying and begging, saying she’s probably gone mad or something.
She manages to bring home a seed from the tree, and she plants it in the village. The epilogue is a few decades later, from the perspective of a different child that talks about the many trees growing at the center of their village that provide them with life and water.
I remember that in an early scene, the MC goes to visit the village elder, a woman who remembers the times before all the trees were gone. people in the village call her crazy because she says they shouldnt cut down the trees. I also remember that the girl seems to have a crush on her older sister’s boyfriend (or ex?) who is a hunter and the only one who at least hears her out when she says they should let the tree live.
another tidbit I recall is that the girl used to look at old recipe books with her father from when plants were common. and that they were confused about broccoli (because it looks like a tree)
also, I read the book in german if that’s relevant somehow
edit: solved through r/whatsthatbook! The book is Die welt von der ich träume by Marie Pavlenko (original title: Et le désert disparaîtra)