What is Treejer?

4min

Treejer is an open protocol connecting funders to rural planters worldwide. The project is experimenting with cutting-edge concepts such as decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and smart contracts to unlock new opportunities in climate finance and rural development.

Lack of transparency in financing conservation projects is a big challenge, specially for projects located in the less developed parts of our planet. We usually donate and forget. And we hope that someone will use the money for good. Another challenge is that we focus on the number of new trees that end up in the ground, not on planting the right trees in the right places or taking care of them after planting to ensure they survive. Governments and organizations have long suffered from low survival rates of trees in restoration projects and are looking for new ways to mitigate it.

In addition, it's hard to combine programs towards the financial inclusion of unbanked communities and align them with climate goals. In fact, that's where our environmental actions have potentially the highest social impact as well.

And last but not least, we've noticed the lack of proper incentives for people and organizations to fund such impact projects. There should be a diverse set of financial and non-financial incentives for them to fund forests. Some funders want to own the credit of their action and showcase it to the public, and some others prefer to look at it as an impact investment opportunity with tangible ROI. At Treejer, we're building open tools to address such challenges.



Diagram 1: How Treejer Works
Diagram 1: How Treejer Works


In simple words, Treejer Protocol acts as a transparent bridge. Individuals and organizations are encouraged to fund trees with it and local communities are paid to plant and maintain them as they grow.

IMPACT

Treejer creates new job opportunities for local communities and helps build a better future for our children by tackling Climate Change, one of the most pressing issues of our time. Our approach in reforestation and afforestation is sustainable, inclusive and community-based. We are exploring new ways to maximize impact and transparency.

The protocol uses blockchain-based smart contracts to receive funding for trees and redistribute it to planters and other stakeholders in a transparent way. Using Treejer is free for both planters and funders, however, it charges a commission per tree sale to enable a more sustainable development with high social impact:

  • Local Development Fund: A pool that distributes recurring micro-loans to participating communities for other sustainable development activities such as children education and local entrepreneurship
  • Tree Rescue Fund: A pool that acts as an insurance to plant new trees when wildfires or other natural disasters hit the sites
  • Tree Research Fund: A pool that sponsors scientific researches required for developing Treejer, such as impact analyses, economic modelling and finding allometric equations of tree species to estimate their absorbed carbon
  • Treasury: A pool that supports open-source development of Treejer protocol and its ecosystem

Watch Treejer's Introduction Video





Updated 25 Mar 2024
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