Tree credits
Tree credits is concept of community-based agroforestry whereby the tree planter/ caretaker is rewarded during several years for her/his climate services. The system has been developed in response to the need for a simple way to get carbon credits to the individual planter with a minimum of overheads. And to simplify implementation and monitoring of such projects by using for-profit methods, much like microfinance.
Aims
- Problem setting
Lord Nicholas Stern: “The two defining challenges of our century are climate change and poverty. And if we fail on one, we will fail on the other”. 2009
- Solution indication
Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General: “Like in microfinance, women can be agents of climate change too.” December 2, 2009
History
The tree credits system was developed and the name introduced by Ferdinand Swart in 2009. Several community tree planting where designed or influenced by tree credits methods (OARM, PSA, GPS). The Indian state of Karnataka introduced the term, tree credits, to measure environmental compensation of large projects in 2013.