How our Carbon Calculations Work

Trees for the Future (’TREES’) helps smallholder farmers transition from monocrop systems to regenerative, multi-species “Forest Gardens”. In addition to increasing farmers’ income, resilience, and local food security – as well as improving soil health and reducing environmental degradation – Forest Gardens have the added benefit of sequestering carbon dioxide above and below ground. To learn more about the organization and how Forest Gardens work, watch this short video or read our vetting report.

Impact per Dollar

Here is the impact for each $1 donated:

Individual Members

(no commission)

• 4 trees planted
• 16 lbs CO2 offset per year for 20 years
• 319 lbs CO2 offset total

($6.91 offsets a metric tonne of CO2)

Brand Members

(after 10% commission)

• 3.6 trees planted
• 14.4 lbs CO2 offset per year for 20 years
• 287 lbs CO2 offset total

($7.68 offsets a metric tonne of CO2)

Some More Nuance

The totals above reflect the amount of carbon stored over 20 years. Here’s a bit more detail about what’s going on behind the scenes in a forest garden:

• These numbers capture both the above-ground carbon (i.e. in the vegetation) as well as below-ground carbon (stored in roots and soil). Converting into a multi-layer agroforestry system stores far more carbon in the soil than traditional monocropped land does.
• Time to realize impact: It takes 5 years from the time of donation for these results to be realized (i.e. for the trees to start sequestering carbon) – because it takes time to recruit and train farmers and plant the full garden.
• Sequestration over time: The growth rate of trees and their carbon storage is not linear (even though we’ve modeled it as linear over 20 years). The growth follows a curve, in which they sequester CO2 slowly in the initial years of planting and later the carbon storage expands as they grow. Typically the middle of a tree’s life is when it’s most actively growing and sequestering the most carbon. After that, the tree will continue to hold the stored carbon but won’t be sucking lots of additional CO2 out of the atmosphere. TREES estimates that 75% of the sequestration happens in the first 10 years of a tree’s life.
• Monitoring: TREES currently uses GIS and drone evaluation to collect robust data sets. In addition, their M&E system, TaroWorks, is cloud-based and syncs automatically with their SalesForce database. This system assists in collecting comprehensive and complete data sets from their training teams. To track longer-term success, TREES takes a random sample from 10% of Forest Gardens annually after the first four years (post-graduation). This survey measures number of trees, crops, GPS points of farmers’ land, baseline trees for each year & annual evaluation. Nutrition and income impact is measured through farmer surveys and by using industry standard measurements, including the Household Food Insecurity Access Score and Household Dietary Diversity Scale scales. On average, families experience a 400% increase in income and a more than 500% increase in access to nutrition after establishing their gardens.
• Tree survival rate: Farmers have training, continuing education and monitoring for 4 years until a point where the forest garden is established and in full production. The farmer families are trained and armed with a plan to maintain their regenerative Forest Garden indefinitely, providing food and products to sell, a stable livelihood, and proper food/nutrition throughout the year. Contrasted with organizations that plant trees to plant trees, a Forest Garden serves as both a personal food source and an economic resource, and as a result is carefully tended to indefinitely. Because the wellbeing of these trees are directly equated to the economic and nutritional wellbeing of the families who tend them, TREES has seen a high survival rate of the trees planted – between 75-85% depending on the trees and country.