Digital marketplace to boost native tree planting efforts
Conservation organisation, Trees That Count, has launched a community marketplace, to connect native tree planters with funders throughout New Zealand.
This technology will help increase native tree planting by providing funders with an easy way to fund trees and showcase impact, in turn supporting the thousands of planters who can increase native tree planting efforts in their communities.
There are more than 40,000 trees available to planters already, funded by organisations such as Z Energy, The Tindall Foundation, Kiwibank, the Department of Conservation and from many small businesses and individual donors.
Tanya Hart, Project Director for Trees That Count, says the technology will be game-changing for planters, and funders, in New Zealand.
“When Trees That Count launched in November 2016, the focus was to build a picture of the planting efforts in New Zealand every year by counting the native trees which are planted by community groups, government agencies, schools and people in their own backyards. We do this so we can measure the collective impact of the native planting across New Zealand as a strategy for climate change reduction. But we really wanted to be able to help accelerate the rate of planting. We developed our digital community marketplace so we could unite funders with planters, and really make a difference to conservation in New Zealand.”
“We know businesses and individuals in New Zealand are keen to act on climate change, and planting native trees is such an easy way to do that. Our new technology creates some excitement, by allowing funders to compete on a Tree Leaderboard, have their funding matched to a planting group, and then see their trees mapped once planted.
“For planters, we’re keen to extend their planting work. Our role is not to fully fund a planting project, but to bridge the gap so a planter can achieve even more. Any planter who has added trees to our national count is eligible to apply for free trees from us. Planters also get to celebrate their work on our Tree Leaderboard and get access to technical advice and support.
“To make a meaningful contribution to the New Zealand environment and climate change, we need to plant hundreds of millions of trees over the coming years. The Government’s Billion Trees Programme will support this lofty goal. But Government alone can’t achieve this - we need to make New Zealanders understand that protecting our environment is a job for us all,” Tanya said.
