WithOneSeed Community Forest Programme, Timor-Leste

The WithOneSeed Programme in Baguia, Timor-Leste

Simplicity

WithOneSeed brings together nearly 1,000 smallholder subsistence farmers to grow a mosaic of community forests across deforested and degraded landscapes.

On their own, smallholder farmers cannot access global carbon markets. The WithOneSeed model changes this by democratising participation. We support farmers to plant and care for trees on their own land, while combining these individual efforts into a single, community-based forest network.

Each farmer owns the trees they plant and receives an annual incentive payment for every tree that survives. Collectively, these trees form new forests that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, creating verified carbon credits that return both economic and environmental benefits to local communities.

WithOneSeed is built on one simple idea: when communities grow trees together, they grow opportunity.

Transparency/Integrity

Working with communities requires deep trust and high transparency, both of which are essential for building strong, inclusive local economies.

The WithOneSeed model is not just about planting trees; it’s about nurturing a sustainable ecosystem that benefits the environment and communities.

A cornerstone of this model's success is the TreeO2 d-MRV platform, an innovative digital system developed by xpand Foundation and the Baguia community to enhance transparency and accountability in community forestry.

TreeO2 combines a smartphone app, web-based platform, and RFID tagging system to create a seamless digital chain of evidence. Each tree planted is tagged with a unique RFID chip, and each farmer is issued a TreeO2 membership card linking their personal ID to every tree they care for.

This integrated system enables the secure collection and storage of data such as:

• GPS coordinates
• Tree growth and circumference measurements
• Carbon storage calculations
• Farmer incentive payment records

All information is stored on a secure cloud-based server, ensuring that every data point can be verified and analysed in real time.

TreeO2 has already underpinned two successful Gold Standard-certified carbon audits in Timor-Leste, proving its reliability and integrity. By making data transparent, traceable, and accessible, TreeO2 not only strengthens community trust from farmer to buyer but also streamlines the management of smallholder forestry, making it more inclusive, efficient and accountable.

Equality

At the heart of the WithOneSeed model is a simple belief: all people have equal value.

Whether we are subsistence farmers, educators, or buyers of high-integrity carbon offsets, we each contribute meaningfully to the shared goal of climate action and community resilience.

“When we pay farmers fairly for every tree they plant and keep alive, forests return and livelihoods improve. This is not charity for rural subsistence communities; it’s a fair partnership in climate action. Our innovative digital forestry management tool, TreeO2, provides transparent, auditable data on every tree in the program and the carbon it sequesters for the global market. Each WithOneSeed carbon credit purchased creates income for farmers, funds rural youth employment, stimulates village-based enterprise, builds critical community infrastructure, and creates living forests that protect water, soils, and livelihoods.”
— Amy Stevenson, CEO, xpand Foundation

The program’s integrity is independently verified and holds an AA rating from BeZero, placing it among the top 2% of carbon projects worldwide. Gold Standard certification ensures rigorous carbon accounting and transparency.

Impact

More than 80% of all carbon revenue is returned directly to the community  through farmer payments, local employment, and community identified and led projects, particularly for those community members who don’t own land.

Funds have also been used to support communities in times of crisis, such as post-cyclone recovery, and to improve essential infrastructure, including village water systems and the construction of a community training facility. 

By organising farmers and communities to work together on one activity (in this case tree planting and forest stewardship), we have seen them lead in creating other diverse local enterprises, including eco-trekking and tourism accommodation, food preservation ventures, savings and loans groups and solar home-lighting services, each adding value to village economies and improving quality of life.

This approach turns forest restoration into a community asset, strengthening village-level resilience, and channelling private climate finance into the places it wouldn’t ordinarily reach- remote rural communities where forest stewardship matters most.

“The Ho Musan Ida (WithOneSeed in English) program in Baguia, Timor-Leste, has created new opportunities for our community by planting trees on our own land. Through this program, we pass knowledge from the older generation to the new, helping them value the forest as our supermarket, our pharmacy, our life library, and the heart of the planet.”

— Leopoldina Guterres, Community Leader and Director, Foundation Ho Musan Ida, Baguia, Timor-Leste

The WithOneSeed programme impacts and benefits to date (as of 2025) are:

• MOU with the Government of Timor-Leste since 2015
• Certified by Gold Standard since 2016
• Rated AA by BeZero (top 2% of carbon projects globally) 
• US$3.90M paid into the Baguia village economy since 2010
• 112,618 tonnes CO2  sequestered since 2009
• 914 farmers managing 469,288 trees now under farmer management ( 8 hardwood native and naturalised species)
• 46 local youth from Baguia in full-time employment via the program
• Baguia Farmer Finance Cooperative established for savings and loans
• 3 new social enterprises established

 A message from our project patron, the President of the Republic of Timor-Leste, His Excellency José Ramos-Horta:  https://presidenciarepublica.tl/remarks-of-president-j-ramos-horta-at-the-australasian-emission-reduction-summit-at-melbourne/?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwMKUFdjbGNrAwpP02V4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEe_QLuX4MurJ2uYGrEjmmuJlfLudKm-d7sJxzhqMT_7BktwK2ye2Ebu5UIBak_aem_COZaehc7nVJTTq6Isqx96Q

More project information is available in the Gold Standard Impact Registry and on the WithOneSeed website.

Vintages of credits: 2022
N.B.  Individual vintages cannot be selected for purchase. Purchases will include credits from the vintage range stated.