Our Communities

We are committed to an inclusive society that values the meaningful livelihood and happiness of every individual.

Every tree counts, and every farmer counts.
These are some of the farmers that are helping to reforest Timor-Leste.

Make it count

Proven over a ten year period, our smallholder tree farming methodology has already engaged with over 1500 smallholder farmers, planted in excess of 200,000 trees, drawndown over 80,000 tonnes of C02e from the global atmosphere and put over $500,000 in the pockets of subsistence farmers and their communities in Timor-Leste.

Jacinto Ramos

423 trees

Maria Alves Guterres

1012 trees

Getrudes Madeira da Costa

400 trees

Venancio S.da Costa

204 trees

Pasquela Fernandes

382 trees

Tomas Antonio Alves

71 trees

WithOneSeed is the first Gold Standard verified carbon forestry program in Timor-Leste. We work with subsistence farming communities to replant their forests thereby creating a carbon store to build local economies, deliver practical education and training in agroforestry to create a more sustainable, equal and just world.

WithOneSeed – Supporting subsistence farmers and their communities.

Do good and take immediate action to address climate change by purchasing carbon credits or fund tree planting by adopting a tree through the WithOneSeed reforestation program that supports smallholder subsistence farmers and their communities.

Take Action

What’s important to us

We’re planting the future.
We’re committed to social, economic and environmental justice.
We put people and planet before profit.
We leave no-one behind.
We encourage regenerative forestry and agriculture.
We tread lightly on the planet.
We are carbon negative.

We support tree planting and community forestry in Timor-Leste as a carbon drawdown initiative.

We work directly with subsistence communities addressing economic and environmental security.

We recognise the importance of social justice and human rights, and we work towards an inclusive civil and democratic society.

We’re empowering people and organisations to take positive action in the pursuit of a more sustainable planet.

We are committed to an inclusive society that values the meaningful livelihood and happiness of every individual.

We treat all people as equal, with dignity and respect and without the threat of racial, sexual or physical abuse.

We practice regenerative use of the world’s natural resources and replenish what we take, where we can.

We work to create meaningful employment, build the economic capacity and empower the most disadvantaged in the community, including women, the elderly, the unemployed, people of colour, the LGBTIQ+ community, those with disability and those displaced from their homes to take control of their own lives

We promote innovation and the exploration of ideas.

We acknowledge Indigenous people as the true custodians of all the land on which we work, live and learn. Indigenous people account for less than 5% of the world’s population but they support or protect 80% of the planet’s biodiversity and occupy, own, manage or have land tenure over 25 – 50% of the earth’s land. We recognise the ongoing connection to country, water and community, and we pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging.

If we are to preserve the future, we must listen to the knowledge and wisdom of Indigenous communities who are facing environmental injustices all around the world.
We’re empowering people and organisations to take positive action in the pursuit of a more sustainable planet.

FAQ

What’s our legal structure?

TreeO2 and WithOneSeed are projects of the xpand Foundation based in Australia. The xpand Foundation is a registered charity with the ACNC. Click here for more information about the xpand Foundation.

How do I become a tree-adopting partner?

This is the simple bit. Both businesses and individuals can become tree adopting partners.

If you are a business, you can email adopt@treeO2.org and we will contact you with all of the information you need to partner with us and support tree planting and subsistence communities in Timor-Leste.

If you are an individual and want to adopt trees to help drawdown carbon from the worlds atmosphere, click here and adopt a tree today.

Are you a registered charity?

Yes, we’re a company limited by guarantee registered with the ACNC.

Can you prove my impact?

Yes! TreeO2 is not just a website to enable you to adopt, it is a full Community Forestry Management Platform. The platform allows us to track every tree planted and report on an annual basis the tree survival rate, tree growth rate, tree carbon storage, number of tree farmers earning an income from managing the trees and the total income into village-based economies in Timor-Leste.

WithOneSeed is also a Gold Standard Foundation afforestation/reforestation certified program. As with all international certifications, WithOneSeed is required to undertake regular independent third-party audits of all our activities.

What's stopping someone from cutting down the newly planted tree?

WithOneSeed pays the farmers annually for every tree that survives. This incentive payment acts as a positive reinforcement about the value of trees both in monetary terms and also environmental terms.

WithOneSeed has a very strong community building focus and carbon farming can only be viable for these communities if it is a one in, all in mentality. WithOneSeed requires a whole of community participation model to succeed.

What's the survival rate of these trees?

The current survival rate of trees planted and managed under the WithOneSeed model is 74%.

How much carbon does a tree sequester?

This is a hard question to answer as sequestration rates depend on many variables including soil, rainfall and surrounding environment. The WithOneSeed program measures carbon for the total new forest which over the past 10 years has been just over 80,000 tonnes of CO2e. This will increase with tree growth and the addition of more trees.

Is my carbon footprint offset by newly-planted trees?

No. You are adopting these trees so that more trees can be planted. The income raised goes to the propagation of over 50,000 seeds a year.

The carbon that is stored in these forests is owned by the farmers who are planting and managing these trees on their own smallholder farms. The income from the sale of the carbon credits into the international carbon market is all returned to the farmers.

Who is checking to see the tree was planted, and whether it grows?

This is where TreeO2 is more than just a everyday tree adoption service. TreeO2 is a full Community Forestry Management Platform. Every tree planted is counted and growth is measured every year. This information is maintained in a cloud based database and assists WithOneSeed with it international reporting obligations.

When you adopt a tree, you are not paying an anonymous person to plant a tree for you somewhere in the world. You are paying to help maintain a tree that has already been planted by a subsistence farmer in Timor-Leste.

How will you know this? You will be able to see every tree you adopt on a map and you will also be able to see the farmer(s) who manage the trees.

Are the trees being planted varied and native species?

They sure are! Monoculture forests and non-native species do not fall under the category of responsible reforestation.

There are currently 7 species of tree planted in the WithOneSeed Community Forestry Program. They are; mahogany, teak, sandalwood, casuarina, rosewood, eucalyptus and sterculia foetida.

Are the tree farmers being cared for and paid fairly?

The WithOneSeed Community Forestry Program approach is simple in its theory and application. We’re planting trees and planting ideas. Our innovation comes from the annual incentive payments made to subsistence farmers who maintain the trees. If a subsistence farmer has to choose between planting a cash crop or planting trees that may take 20 years to provide a financial return, the choice is obvious. However, if we can make a cash crop from trees that sequester carbon, the equation is quite different.

“To put an ‘earned’ dollar in someone’s pocket gives them the power to determine their own future. WithOneSeed supports communities to move beyond charity and aid by delivering opportunities for communities and individuals to become economically independent”. Andrew Mahar AM Co-founder WithOneSeed.