We are growing trees & seeding ideas.
WithOneSeed is the first Gold Standard verified carbon forestry program in Timor Leste. It is working with subsistence farming communities to replant their forests thereby creating a carbon store to build local economies, deliver practical education and training in agroforestry and permaculture to create a more sustainable, equal and just world.
WithOneSeed has four commitments
WithOneSeed
WithOneSeed is developing capacity for subsistence communities to build local economies, participate in environmental education and establish partnerships to produce a more equal and just world.
It’s about climate justice, sustaining development and achieving climate regulation at local and national levels in Timor-Leste. WithOneSeed supports 10 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
WithOneSeed particularly helps realise the SDGs by helping to:
- – end poverty and hunger and promote sustainable farming and lifelong learning
- – promote decent work, sustainable agricultural communities and economic growth
- – take action to combat climate change, manage forests and reverse land degradation
- – encourage local, national and global partnerships for sustainable development
- – empower women and children, and particularly girls, by increasing family income, facilitating children’s education and creating family job prospects.
Vision
Our long-term vision is to build village-based economies using environmental practices that are viable and support sustainable living. Putting an earned dollar in a persons pocket empowers them to make decisions for their own future. It is beyond charity and aid.
Today, Timor-Leste is an oil/gas dependent economy. This is not sustainable in the medium to long-term. Planting trees today will allow the country to have viable economic alternatives tomorrow.
We plan to plant 1,000,000+ trees by replicating the Community Tree Cooperative model across Timor-Leste.
The WithOneSeed model documentation will be made available to other Asia-Pacific countries under Creative-Commons ethos.
Innovation
Our approach is simple in its theory and application. We are planting trees and seeding ideas. Our innovation comes from the annual incentive payments made to subsistence farmers who maintain the trees. If a subsistence farmer has to choose between planting a cash crop or planting trees that may take 20 years to provide a financial return, the choice is obvious. However, if we can make a cash crop from trees that sequester carbon, the equation is quite different.
“To put an ‘earned’ dollar is someone’s pocket give them the power to determine their own future. WithOneSeed supports communities to move beyond charity and aid by delivering opportunities for communities and individuals to become economically independent”. Andrew Mahar AM Co-founder WithOneSeed
Methodology
WithOneSeed has developed a program methodology incorporating the key elements of the Gold Standard A/R criteria
– Designed for small-scale farmers in rural areas
– Designed for members of democratic community-based organisations able to contribute to social and economic development
– Designed to provide reforestation with native or naturalised tree species
– Designed to create a sustainable land-management plan
– Designed to use improve complementary livelihoods
– Designed to be based on land title or certified community or customary ownership that allows accountability for carbon reduction and
– Designed to monitor, record and sell carbon stored
– Designed to allow farmers to receive payments for carbon stored in trees
– Designed to meet Gold Standard Foundation standards through a community consultative process
– Designed for farmer managed and owned land
– Designed to encourage the development of local capacity, and minimise dependence on external support.
TreeO2 community forestry tool
A key part of the transparency of the WithOneSeed community forestry program is the tracking of every farmer and every tree he or she plants. For the past 10 years this has been done using a Garmin GPS device. WithOneSeed community foresters visit each tree farmer and together they GPS locate every tree. This information is then downloaded and mapped to allow the program to know exactly how many trees survive each year. This information is also used to calculate the annual farmer payment which is based on the number of surviving trees on each small holder farm. In 2021 just under AU$150,000 was paid to the Baguia tree farmers.
In a year where a performance audit is conducted, sample plots are used and the circumference of a random sample of trees is taken. This information is then used to calculate the amount of carbon that is stored in the new forests. While this methodology has served the program well we are always looking for ways to make the community forest management more efficient, accountable and reliable. Over the past 18 months a new and unique technology has been developed and trialed. The outcome has been the development of a smartphone app called TreeO2. TreeO2 uses RFID nails which are inserted into each tree at breast height. Each farmer is provided with a WithOneSeed membership card, which also contains an RFID chip. This gives each farmer a unique ID and each tree also has a unique ID. The two ID’s are linked by the TreeO2 app which allows the program to record a range of data including planting date, species, GPS location, circumference measurements, farmer payment information. TreeO2 stores this information in a cloud-based server and this information can be analysed at any time.
See where the trees are planted in Baguia, Timor Leste
Current activities
November 2021
Do you know
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Do you know that reforestation improves soil and water quality, reduces soil erosion, and helps to restore natural habitats?
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