Executive summary

 Climate change is and still, remains one of the serious global problems. To address it, several proposals to cut carbon emissions have been proposed and implemented. One such proposal is the clean development mechanism. The CDM allows for the development of carbon reduction projects such as clean energy or reforestation mostly in the developing world which then receives carbon credits to sell to carbon emitter including countries and companies that needs to offset their carbon. As a result, this has led to the development of the international carbon market where carbon credits are traded. 

WithOneSeed (WOS) is one of the key players in the international carbon market. The organization engages in a carbon project i.e. reforestation in Timor Leste where it partners with local smallholder farmers to plant trees as cash crops in their farm. Farmer’s get paid using the money generated from the sale of carbon credit. recently, to make the entire process of managing the growth of trees through smallholder farmer more effective, transparent, and robust, WOS developed the Tree02 app which is a forestry inventory management system that uses a smartphone (app) and RFID technology to register farmers, monitor trees planted survived and their growth rates as well as money paid to farmers. Tree02 has thus brought transparency, credibility, and effectiveness to the carbon projects. 

To understand how best to promote the benefits of treeO2 to financial, community farmer, and carbon offset purchase and other key stakeholders in the industry, this research aimed to identify key themes in secondary research and primary research. In addition, tools such as PESTLE and perceptual map were used to provide a broader overview of the industry.

 These uncovered key main theme which are

• The environmental integrity of carbon project
• Transparency
• Credibility
• Legitimacy

 These themes were then used to conduct a SWOT analysis which subsequently led to three key ideas for WOS. These are 

• Lobbying for TreeO2 to be a mandate or certified as the official forestry inventory management tools in carbon project involving reforestation 
• Educate individuals and companies about treeO2 and the importance of offsetting their carbon with those carbon project that uses treeO2 or similar system vs they are more credible 
• Improve T2eeO@ to guarantee transparency to win individuals as they are highly skeptical

About xpand foundation

 Xpand foundation is an Australian social enterprise which develop-climate related project mostly in Timor Leste.  One of the company climate-related programs is the 'With One Seed' program.  With one seed (WOS) program is a carbon-cutting project developed by xpand foundation in TimLesteste. Being a carbon-cutting project means that the program gets carbon credits which it is allowed to sell in the international carbon market to countries and companies that want to meet their climate goals. With one seed (WOS) is a not-for-profit program that was established with the sole purpose of addressing the sustainability needs of communities and the environment. Currently, 'with one seed' (WOS) is working with subsistence farmers’ communities in Timor Leste to replant their forest thereby creating a carbon store that helps build local economies and create a more sustainable and just world.  The organization works closely with the subsistence farmers in the region, it gives them sapling which they plant on their small land.  Once farmer plant the trees, there are supposed to maintain them and ‘with one seed’ pay them for doing so using the money it raises from selling carbon credits in the international market. So through its social enterprise model, the organization is able to help in addressing climate change by ensuring there are adequate trees to act as a carbon store hence reducing carbon in the atmosphere. Secondly, the model also allows the company to promote the sustainable economic welfare of substance farmers in Timor Leste by reimaging trees as cash crops. To improve the program even further, the company has recently introduced a smartphone app dubbed treeO2 which is meant to help improve the management of tree inventory not only in Timor Leste but also anywhere else.TreeO2 is a new and one of its kind forestry management platform to manage smallholder trees and carbon farming. Through the use of smartphone and RFID technology, the TreeO2 is a complete forestry inventory management tools that allow a project developer to monitor on annual basis the registration of tree farmers, allocation of sapling to each farmer, the survival of tree in each smallholder farmers and growth rate of trees in each smallholder farmer.  as a result, the TreeO2 provide a robust, transparent, accountable, and accurate measure of the success of reforestation and  carbon sequestration

Aim

The purpose of this report is to identify relevant themes that identify opportunities for improving, promoting, and encouraging adoption, financing, and use of the treeO2 app in the carbon-cutting project across the globe.  The key questions that this report seeks to answers are;

·       are the community trees farmers, carbon project  developers, international carbon certification bodies, and carbon credit purchasers ready and willing to embrace such technology 

·       what are the external factors that would affect the  financing, adoption, and use of the treeO2 app

Method

 To achieve the objective of this report, several methods were used. To begin with, a PESTLE analysis was first created to help identify broad trends that have the potential to impact ‘with one seed’ currently and in the near future. Secondly, a perceptual map was used to provide a more specific analysis of the industry in which 'With one seed' operates and to analyze WOS's current positioning in the market based on customers' motives.

In addition, to facilitate primary research data was collected by conducting a qualitative with four industry stakeholders.  To complement the primary research secondary research was also conducted. The secondary research involved the relevant study of peer-reviewed journals, government and industry reports, and to a lesser extent, websites, and news articles.

 The main subject matter researched were

·       Current trends in carbon credit markets

·       the debate around international carbon markets