Tree-Nation is a Barcelona-based entity that wants to plant 8 million trees in Niger, in the shape of a giant heart. Their hope is that this re-forestation campaign will help the environment and the people of the country.
They’re going about it the right way. People go to the site and peruse a mapping application to find the trees that have already been planted, and/or pick a spot for their tree. There are four types of trees to choose from, ranging from €10 – €75 each. The tree can be named and a message added that people viewing it later can read. Each tree purchase also comes with a “blog,” which is an area where the purchaser can talk about whatever they like, and others can comment. You can also link directly to your tree from another website.
The idea is great, although the execution so far is very rough. I was unable to buy a tree using my Visa card, although the site says they accept it. I was also unable to determine from their website if they are a for-profit or non-profit organization, whether a purchase is tax deductible, and other details which would make me more comfortable donating.
Tree-nation states quite clearly that they are in beta, though, and they are looking to hire a number of people to fill developer roles. If they fix the bugs and provide clearer messaging, this could be a really cool way for the tree hugger crowd to express themselves and do something to help others.
352 trees have been planted so far according to the site. They have a long, long way to reach their goal of 8 million trees. if they get there, It will be interesting to see if this shows up on satellite images of Niger (it should, it will be big enough).
Wait a minute… in Niger?
Let me guess, you received an email like the following:
Dir/Sir Madam,
REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP:
FIRST I MUST SOLICIT YOUR STRICTEST CONFIDENCE IN THIS TRANSACTION. WE HAVE FOUND THAT YOU ARE THE SOLE INHERITOR OF TEN THOUSAND TREES (10,000). PLEASE SEND US YOUR BANK ACCOUNT INFORMATION SO THAT WE MAY TRANSFER THE TREES IMMEDIATELY.
YOURS FAITHFULLY,
NIGERIAN SCAMMER
This sounds like a great idea, but I’m not going to buy one until I can verify that it’s not some type of scam. Seems like it would be too easy to take everyone’s money and run since there’s really no way to know that the tree will ever be planted (particularly since it’s in Niger).
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that your tree was actually planted,
Anita
Sorry, previous link didn’t come through right. Here’s the map (Niger is highlighted):
Niger vs. Nigeria
“We are a group of young people who share an idea that it is possible to wake up in the morning with a smile, knowing that the work you do that day can make a real difference. It is this dream that has inspired Tree-Nation; to make a successful business by helping to make the environment a success. We are very proud of being a business and using our business strategies to combat environmental problems. Imagine if 50% of the worlds businesses made their profits from activities that benefited the environment!”
Pretty clear that they are For Profit!
I hope this is for real because it’s a great idea.
Chris
It’s good to have some humour in the house!!!
I’m one of the Directors of Tree-Nation, here to answer anything you like.
You have raised some good points though, and they deserve a response.
Niger, although spelt a little like Nigeria, is not. But you are right – be very careful of web scams.
As a new company we face the obvious challenge of building trust. We do all we can, and will continue to do so.
Hopefully partners like our friends the UNEP will add a bit of faith:
http://www.unep...-treenation.asp
The park in Niger is a symbol to us all. It is the poorest who get hit the hardest by Climate Changes. So we are working in the deep end! With a bit of luck our community will develop many more projects to take effect around the world.
I’m always here if you want any answers, and you could always ask a few of our other members…
Andy
Big article in Sunday NYTimes on this very topic, from environmental perspective: http://www.nyti...nyt&emc=rss
This is a great idea. I just bought a tree (http://tree-nat...om/?tree=121003). The site is a bit shaky — it crashed Firefox — and slow, and a variety of small changes could make big usability improvements, but I like the design and love the idea. Hopefully, they’ll work out the kinks during the beta. Good luck to them!
Plant a tree on Niger? WTF?
How about feed a child for a month with $10?
The world’s biggest problem is not lacks of tree, is lack of food.
I am not sure about this site – it doesn’t say if its a nonprofit or for-profit company, no statement on how much the tree actually cost. €10 – €75 per tree is A LOT.
Compares 10 cents per tree with Trees for the Future ( http://treesftf.freepledge.com, or http://www.plant-trees.org ), which plant trees overseas.
Or $1 per tree with American Forest ( http://www.americanforests.org ), which plant trees in US.
Either Tree-Nation has very high profit margin (95%), or they are not doing this right compare to other nonprofits.
VERY cool. Think of the positive exposure this will bring to beat down nation. Tech folk, help them!!
I think it great, what with us using so many trees up on the smallest things (like using tissue insted of a handkerchief to blow your nose) and this is a great idea, i will deffenetly join !!! such a good idea….keep on going through with this i think you may make a diffrence
Note to Andy:
You guys have to make yourselves very transparent. It has to be obvious as soon as anyone visits your website that you are part of the UNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign. It should be the headline of your story. That should stick out immediately! I can understand why some people are so unsure about investing.
What % of the revenues are these guys keeping as profit? Shouldn’t some non profit folks be able to do this and donate close to 100% of the cash?
Marcelo – Lack of food? A myth, mostly. We produce vastly more than needed, and many countries pay farmers to keep land fallow. The main problem is distribution.
Subsistence don’t stand a chance in regions prone to desertification. We can choose assistance and feed them in 10 years, or ensure their livelihood and our climate are protected.
Here is a site that is doing excellent work in Africa – http://darfurwall.org. The site works and 100 percent of proceeds go for humanitarian assistance to Darfur. All admin expenses are paid out of pocket by the organizers. Donations of services have included web hosting and printed flyers.
TechCrunch – how about a writeup – this site is innovative in many ways. Take a look!
Marcelo, lack of food is not the world’s biggest problem, and guess what: many trees provide food anyway. Mmmmm, I love me a good apple tree.
Daniel is right, distribution is the problem. Many times rebels or corrupt governments stop food from getting to those places that need the food the most. It is easier to rule a starving man than a well-fed one.
So, before you dismiss the value of trees, be sure you’ve done your homework.
Daniel, hundreds of millions of people don’t have food to eat. That is a fact.
If the problem is distribution, production or corruption is a different, although correlated, topic.
I had similar problems with credit cards. A quick email to them got an immediate response, though. They’re upgrading the payment system (it’s more likely the card issuer/bank than the payment gateway that’s causing the problem,) and will take payment via Paypal.
This is a great idea. Who says participating here means you can’t ALSO feed a child for a month Marcello?
Everything old is new again!
I can remember buying trees for Israel as a young kid, 30-odd years ago. A quick google search reveals many different organizations doing this.
I love this idea, but it doesn’t have to be a web 2.0 thing or a business. In fact, we just pulled off a small philanthropy project like this in November, http://www.88bikes.com, where people could give $88 to buy a bike for one of 88 kids at Palm Tree orphanage in Cambodia. Every $$ of conntribution went to buying the bikes, and we raised over $20k in about a month. All it took was a website, a few simple paypal tools, a typepad blog, lots of generous people, and a dream. We covered all the extra expenses out of our own pockets. We loved it, and we’re going to try to do it every year. Actually, I think making a profit would take all the fun out. Why doesn’t this team go get some high paying webtoohey jobs and then go plant these trees as a passion ?
Tree-Nation.com is a neat site, hope they work out the bugs. But when you type http://www.treenation.com, it takes it to a different site which is not related to this Tree-nation.com project. It shows Microsoft Exchange information and requests people to enter hotmail address and password. Don’t know whether this treenation.com is a legit site for Microsoft. You guys have to be careful.
The population explosion on the global scale is direct evidence that we have more food than we need. (Easy to say as a “starving artist” in a position of privilege greater than many in the world..) But the fact is a population is only sustained by it’s food supply. Without solving the distribution/sustainable problem, the drive to produce more food only compounds the problem and probably create more hunger.
Planting trees is a wonderful thing. 8 million trees in Niger? I love it. Joseph Bueys to the extreme.
Pretty cool idea. I like the graphical interface. I think it is neat you get to leave a message. Could become popular like the one pixel advertising sites.
Personally, I’d do it if I had the money.
I know another great website where you can buy a zebu (usefull animal) for an african family
http://www.zob-...php?do=home_ang
I think it’s great if you can make money by helping people.
Do you know other websites like that ?
Did anyone read the Terms of purchase of tree-nation? They say in part:
“Your Rights Under These Terms
By means of these Terms, you acquire the following rights to the goods on the Web Site and managed by the Company:
* Your virtual tree of choice in your desired map location
* Additional space for your personal content
* Tree-blog and comments facilities
These Terms do not give you any right of ownership to any of the trees owned by the Company nor to the use, disposition or possession thereof. These Terms do not grant you any rights above and beyond what is expressly stated, and all obligations of the Company will be interpreted in the most restrictive manner possible.”
This appear to mean that you are actually paying for the use of this social networking site, not an actual tree, and that the company has no responsibility to you to plant an actual tree. Since they are not a nonprofit, they legally are not allowed to do fundraising, btw, online or otherwise.
For a great list of Online Giving tips, see http://www.ephi...name=givingtips
This smells dubious to me. Not least because “Andy”, the so-called “Director” of Tree-Nation, is gramatically challenged.
“”Niger, although spelt a little like Nigeria, is not.” My junior high English teacher would have had a cow.
Andy further states:
“As a new company we face the obvious challenge of building trust. We do all we can, and will continue to do so.”
Well, no, you haven’t done all you can. You haven’t explained why you’re set up as a business, as opposed to being a 501(3)(c). Nor have you explained why your trees cost almost a hundred bucks a pop in a dirt poor sub-saharan nation.
I would suggest a very strong “caveat emptor” approach to this site.
Thank you for all your feedback,
We agree that the company should be more transparent, and we will make all the necessary changes to do so. The fact we created a community where people can talk freely means we always wanted to show as much transparency as possible.
Our website is in beta-phase and we are also working on our communication, therefore we are listening very carefully to all the comments on the web. We are a new company with fresh ideas, and of course we face all the same hurdles that any new business faces. To help achieve transparency we are currently creating a ‘Business FAQ’ in which we will explain how our objective can be reached through ‘for-profit’ management.
Social marketing and social businesses are not easy to define and the principles are relatively unknown, making it sometimes difficult to convince people. Besides major companies doing lots of social activities, small businesses with social objectives are starting to rise too. The interest in global welfare is growing! Most successful businesses are created with for-profit management, whatever the cause is. Imagine what good businesses all over the world could do for our planet…
So more of this in our upcoming ‘Business FAQ’, it’s probably going to take a week or so to have it online. We’ll post a direct link here and we are always glad with any feedback!
Thanks for all your support!
Kind regards,
Andy
Dear Andy,
While it sounds like your heart is in the right place, the comments of others in this forum about the profit margin do give me pause. I don’t think people are having problems *understanding* your “social action for profit” model. While relatively new to me, it’s really not all that complex or mysterious (Google’s foundation appears to be planning some of this stuff too). I think instead that people just don’t *like* it, relative to what non-profits have been able to accomplish in many different situations and countries worldwide.
Also, are you really planning to plant the trees in the shape of a heart? Is this just for marketing purposes? It would seem to make a lot more sense to plant the trees where ecologists in Niger indicate would have the greatest and most sustainable environmental impact with respect to erosion prevention, rainfall / water quality, wildlife corridors to existing forest, etc.
I hope you really are listening, because there seem to be a lot of thoughtful comments here.
Ill buy a tree, would be cool to do the whole million dollar homepage thing with this too. I didn’t read all the comments so if someone mentioned that sorry.
Here a weblink about Niger http://www.niger1.com