Article
Terraformation
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To Tackle the Climate Crisis, We Need to Fund Biodiverse Reforestation
Around the world, forestry teams are working to restore ecosystems and capture carbon. These teams are on the front lines of the fight against climate change, but they face a significant hurdle: early-stage financing.
In 2022, we surveyed 300 foresters around the globe, and 95% said funding was their biggest challenge. In the short term, a lack of consistent income prevents organizations from securing land, staff, and the incentives they need to establish community partnerships. Over the long term, forest teams struggle to plan for future operations and invest in the tools they need to scale up. They end up spending significant staff time fundraising instead of reforesting.
A representative from one NGO in Nepal told us, “We feel like we’re always chasing grants, which hinders implementation.”
The World Needs More Forestry Teams
To reforest at the scale needed to absorb carbon and keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, we urgently need to solve this problem. Today the world has fewer than a dozen teams planting new forests at the scale of one million trees per year. We need hundreds more.
That’s why we recently launched a Seed to Carbon Forest Accelerator — the world’s first biodiversity-focused and carbon-funded forest incubator. It provides the funding needed to launch and train high-impact carbon forestry teams, quickly.
We provide projects with comprehensive support and help them overcome bottlenecks like gaining funding, as well as access to native seeds, technology, training, and networks — all with the goal of growing biodiverse forests that benefit local communities.
Behind Great Forests Are Great People
Our partners in places like the Ecuadorian Amazon and East Africa didn’t create the climate crisis, but they’re hard at work solving it. The forestry teams we work with around the globe are the best resource we have when it comes to growing biodiverse native forests.
- They know their local lands and communities well.
- They have years of experience managing environmental threats.
- They understand what it will take to restore carbon-thirsty ecosystems.
But because they often lack financing, it’s nearly impossible for them to scale up.
Our Accelerator ensures that these teams benefit from booming carbon markets, so they can grow high-quality forests, faster.
Carbon credits can be a powerhouse tool for financing ecosystem restoration — and for directing money from polluting countries to those suffering the worst impacts of climate change. Our Accelerator leverages carbon funds to spur biodiversity and build resilience in hard-hit communities.
Growing Forests for Life
Our team of carbon scientists and foresters hand-pick each project for our Accelerator, with the goal of producing the highest-quality forests — and reducing risk for investors.
Today, far too many nature-based carbon projects result in monoculture tree farms that fail to deliver benefits for people and the planet — or even make things worse.
Nearly half of the new forests promised by governments around the world rely on monoculture plantations of fast-growing species like acacia and eucalyptus that are destined for commercial use. These kinds of factory-style tree farms not only sequester less carbon over the long run than native forests — they can also deplete fresh water, pollute soil, and destroy food and land security for local communities.
The regular harvesting and clearing of tree plantations releases stored CO2 back into the atmosphere every 10 to 20 years. In contrast, restoration of biodiverse native forests creates lasting carbon storage — an estimated 40 times more over the long run than plantations. Native forests are also far more resilient.
To address the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity, we need to restore species-rich native forests — not monoculture plantations.
Taking the Risk Out of Forest Carbon Credits
We want our forests to capture maximum carbon — not just for a few years, but for generations. Here’s how our Accelerator minimizes risk and increases the odds that forests will thrive:
- We grow biodiverse forests. Species-rich forests are resilient. They’re more likely than monoculture tree farms to survive fires, disease, and drought — and they’re better for people and the planet. This resilience matters more in the face of climate change, which hammers forests with severe weather, pests, and wildfire. A biodiverse ecosystem bounces back more easily from a disturbance than a monoculture, where every tree is equally vulnerable to a particular threat. That also means biodiverse forests are a more reliable investment for funders — they’re less likely to fail.
- Our portfolio is science-based and geographically diverse. Our carbon scientists and foresters hand-pick each project with long-term survival in mind.
- Our software monitors the full lifecycle of projects. By providing detailed data in the earliest stages of reforestation, Terraware allows teams to quickly adapt, increasing project efficiency and reducing risk.
- We work closely with forestry teams. With our robust training and technical support, foresters can overcome hurdles and scale restoration more effectively.
- We only work with forests that benefit local people and lands. It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do. Research shows that when communities are invested in a forest’s success, it’s more likely to succeed.
Our Seed to Carbon Forest Accelerator will support forest creators in their early stages and help them scale up faster.
High-Impact Forest Carbon Projects
In the pilot phase of our Seed to Carbon Forest Accelerator, we’ve worked with 18 projects in 12 countries — helping them overcome hurdles like seed shortages and lack of infrastructure, training, and financing. These partners delivered impressive results — and they’re just getting started.
Chochi Iturralde from Humans for Abundance, one of our pilot partners, explains, “The technical side of restoration that Terraformation is providing to this project is really exciting. We’re bringing the tools and tech to these communities who haven’t had access to this, historically, and it really expands the possibilities for restoration.”
Support Forestry Teams and Lock in Access to Premium Carbon Credits
Are you interested in funding forest projects and receiving premium carbon credits? Visit the Seed to Carbon Forest Accelerator landing page.
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8 w
Funding to the right cause is fulfilling
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14 w
Great work
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16 w
Love your work!
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16 w
Definitely...I totally agree
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16 w
Its always assumed that planting trees is an easy task which is far from truth. On the contrary it requires lot's of funding in the initial stages.
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We Don't Have Time•
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Yes we do!
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16 w
It is clear that funding is a major barrier to reforestation and climate change mitigation efforts.
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I was surprised to read that nearly half of all of the new forests promised by governments around the world rely on monoculture plantations! Great article!