Mobile tracking with Greenstand

All of our tree growers use the Treetracker app to take geotagged photos of their trees. Whenever the growers upload a batch of photos we and our partners at Greenstand review each photo. All approved trees are published to our map.

Each tree gets tracked for the first two years of its growth. The growers receive payments every time they submit update photos of their trees.

It’s easy to plant a new tree. What matters is whether a tree survives to a size that it can care for itself. We use the Tree Tracker system to ensure that we are supporting real trees and that we are actually achieving net reforestation.

The Tree Tracker app is built and managed by Greenstand, an open-sourced community of web developers, tree planting organizations and international development professionals, dedicated to improving the transparency and effectiveness of reforestation projects. Check out Greenstand.org for ways you can help make these tools even better.

Community-based management

Fairtree recruits and trains new growers remotely through a network of community-based change agents. This allows us to work in areas that are typically difficult for most non-profits to reach.

We believe in a community-driven approach. Our growers decide how, when, where, and what types of trees they will grow. Fairtree simply ensures that they have a reliable funding source and access to technical resources should they need them.

We know from experience that every village and community already has tree-growing champions. Many simply need dependable support to fully invest their energy into the work.

Mobile payments

Now that the global mobile money market has matured we are putting it to good use. Once a batch of tree photos is reviewed and approved we send payments direct to the grower’s mobile money accounts. Once each grower goes through a vetting and approval process, they are eligible to receive payments and earn income from planting trees. We strive to ensure fair and timely payments, with at least 75% going directly into the hands of growers.

Out-of-the-box reforestation techniques

We don’t just plant trees, we grow trees. There are a lot of ways to grow a new tree, you can transplant a seedling, directly sow seeds into the ground, or even regenerate a tree out of an existing stump or shrub.

Fairtree is focused on the final outcome: “Did we grow a new tree where there was not one before?” - if yes, the grower gets paid.

Here are some of our favorite methods for effective reforestation:

Farmer managed natural regeneration (FMNR): Have you ever seen a stump with dozens of living shoots growing out of it? It can actually be regenerated back into a tree by pruning the excess stems and training the rest to grow up strait. Such techniques are already being used to restore tree cover in vast areas of degraded lands around the world. Trees created by FMNR often have a higher survival rate, grow faster, require less water and cost little-to-nothing to establish.

Stem propagation: A few trees can be easily propagated from stems with a high survival rate. For example, many of the most successful mangrove restoration projects involve jamming large numbers of stems (propagules) into the mud, where they take root and become trees. Currently we can support this method for mangroves (Rhizophora spp.) and Balo (Glyricidia sepium).

Transplanted seedlings: seedlings raised in a nursery still play a huge role in reforestation work, particularly when a planter wants a specific type of tree in a specific location. We encourage our growers to set up nurseries for trees of high economic value such as fruit and timber species. We also encourage them to think outside the box, using recycled and locally available materials whenever possible.

Direct seeding: In some cases the success rate of directly sowing seeds into the ground can be surprisingly high. Since we require photos of established seedlings we only support those trees that have already grown to the size of a seedling or sapling.