WithOneSeed Community Forest Programme

The WithOneSeed / Ho Musan Ida Programme

Simplicity

A collaboration of 1200+ smallholder subsistence farmers working together to create a mosaic of forests across deforested and degraded landscapes. Individually, smallholder farmers are unable to participate in global carbon markets. The Ho Musan Ida model can democratise access to carbon markets by working with communities to grow forest trees on private landholders' land and combine the total trees into a community forest. Each farmer is given trees to plant and nurture, and they receive an annual incentive payment for the trees kept alive, and they will own the trees. This is done on the understanding that each farmer's tree will be combined with every other tree to create new community forests, sequestering CO2e from the global atmosphere. From the new community forest, the CO2e stored will be aggregated for the benefit of individual farmers and the broader community. The Ho Musan Ida model concerns the community's trees and benefits.

Transparency/Integrity

Working with the community requires high transparency to establish the deep trust required when building local economies.  WithOneSeed isn't just about planting trees; it's about nurturing a sustainable ecosystem that benefits the environment and local communities.

A key element to the success of the WithOneSeed community forestry program is the TreeO2 d-MRV platform. TreeO2, an innovative application, results from the xpand Foundation's commitment to sustainable forestry management and carbon offset projects. The technology behind TreeO2, which integrates a smartphone app, a web-based platform, and RFID tags attached to every tree, allows farmers to uniquely identify each tree they plant. This system has been instrumental in facilitating the past two Gold Standard certified carbon performance audits in Timor-Leste. Each farmer is issued a TreeO2 membership card, linking their unique ID to each tree's ID. This connection enables the comprehensive collection and storage of data, including GPS locations, tree circumference measurements, carbon storage, and farmer payment information, on a secure cloud-based server. The stored data can be analysed anytime, enhancing efficiency and transparency, particularly for carbon credit certification and sales. TreeO2 aims to streamline smallholder community forestry programs, increasing transparency and integrity and making managing community forestry more efficient and cost-effective.

Equality

A key driver of WithOneSeed is the fact that, as human beings, we all have the same value. Whether we are subsistence farmers, educators, or buyers of high-integrity carbon offsets, we each make a valued contribution. The farmer who grows the tree through regular watering when young or pruning when older has the same value as the chief executive officer of a major corporation who is genuinely trying to reduce their company's carbon emissions. Each should be recognised and respected for their contribution.

WithOneSeed values the equality of the participating farmers. One way this is achieved is through the annual incentive payments made to farmers for the number of trees they keep alive. Each farmer is offered the same number of trees, and the incentive payment is the same irrespective of the species of trees being grown, growth rates of trees, location of trees or carbon stored in the trees. Therefore, all farmers are treated equally.

The income from carbon sales needs to cover the annual farmer payments and the annual operating costs of Ho Musan Ida, including plan nursery operations, the supply and distribution of saplings, the cost of farmer training activities, the cost of bi-annual international certification and the cost of staffing including community forestry officers, nursery staff and management and administration staff. These costs are increasing as the community forestry program expands. The financial model requires that funds be available to cover activities and operations between performance audits or at least three years. Funds have also been made available to support the community through high-impact crises, like a cyclone that caused significant damage to villages. Funds have also been made available to improve the potable water supply to villages and build a community training facility.

Beyond charity and aid 

We are putting an earned dollar in a person's pocket to give them the power to decide for themselves. We are replenishing the planet to regenerate environments through reforestation, end poverty and hunger through food preservation, and create global partnerships for global goals using international carbon markets to raise capital.  Simple action, many people, big impact.

Impact

The WithOneSeed programme impacts and benefits to date are:

• 1200+ farmers engaged in community forestry
• 450,000+ trees under management
• 124,000+ tCO2e removed from the global atmosphere
• Over US$1m paid into the Baguia village economy since 2010
• Over 5% of Baguia farmers are directly involved in planting and managing trees, flowing on to just under 30% of the population benefitting financially from WithOneSeed
• 45 forest-related jobs created
• Baguia Farmer Finance Cooperative established
• 3 new social enterprises established
• MOU with the Government of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste 
• WithOneSeed Community Forest Programme is certified under the Gold Standard Foundation and achieved its 4th performance audit in 2024.

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.