2020: A big year for natural forests?
As we come to the end of January, we can state without fear of contradiction, that the start of 2020 has proved to be a highly significant time for forest conservationism.
The Australian bushfires have made headlines all over the world, as the flames consumed millions of acres of wildlife habitat, and the lives of humans and animals alike. The full scale of the tragedy is not yet known but as many as a billion animals are said to have been lost, with some species believed to have gone extinct. One small positive in the face of these tragic events has been the fantastic response of the crypto and blockchain community, which has raised significant funding for the relief efforts.
At TreeCoin we’ve begun the year as we mean to go on, working hard to fulfil our vision of a more sustainable future for our planet. We shared a number of videos detailing the work we do with La Rivera in our Telegram channel so you can see exactly what we’ve been doing. Check out our most recent video about our tree nursery. We’re also pleased to say that more and more participants are signing up for our # takemetoparaguay offer — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see our tree-planting project in Paraguay.
But after fierce climate talks in Spain and in last week’s Davos World Economic Forum, is there more to track in 2020? We certainly think so.
TreeCoin remains busy with our replanting and afforestation in Paraguay — but we are always on the lookout for evolving trends too. Here are just some of the events and issues in 2020 which we believe will shape the future of our rainforests.
1. The Tropical Forest Standard in California
In the short term, the US government’s progress on addressing global level climate change doesn’t look hopeful. If there are any positives to take, the sub-national entities look like they are moving ahead on emission curbing, with California approving the Tropical Forest Standard (TFS). This could see the golden state support conservation projects abroad to offset emissions from as early as this year.
If successful, we could see others follow. That could make a genuine impact on the forest carbon market.
2. US presidential elections
It wouldn’t have been possible for California’s TFS to happen without political will at the helm. So observers will be watching this year’s US elections for new leadership that’s more amenable to conservation-friendly legislation. Not that we’re expecting a Green Party candidate to win, but we can dare to dream.
There have been some presidential candidates from both Democrats and Republicans with interesting environmental policies. A selection of noteworthy climate plans:
- Sen Michael Bennet: 10 million zero-emission jobs in 10 years. Net-zero emission by 2050. 30% conservation of land and ocean by 2030.
- Joe Biden’s Clean Energy Revolution: 100% clean energy economy, net-zero emissions by 2050. $400B investment in climate research and innovation, infrastructure and communities.
- Donald Trump has no climate plan. Instead, he still has a campaign promise to “get America out of the Paris Climate Agreement”. He also wants to rescind the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP). He has also signed legislation to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for energy production.
3. The Zero Deforestation Commitments
One of the UN’s sustainable development goals is to halt deforestation by 2020. Quite a few high-profile global conglomerates have signed up, but it is already clear that many won’t meet their promise.
Environment watchdog CDP has named quite a few consumer heavyweights as laggards. The list includes Burger King owner RBI; Kraft Heinz; The Estée Lauder Companies and Yum! Brands, which owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC.
On the other hand, it also praises Danone, Nestle, L’Oreal, Unilever, Kellogg, and Mars for being the closest to keeping their pledge.
Will we be surprised by the results at the end of 2020?
4. The Congo Basin
While Paraguay is one of the countries experiencing a high rate of deforestation, the Congo Basin in Central Africa claims the unwanted top spot. Facing the highest acceleration in deforestation of any region on Earth, the threats to this beautiful habitat are manifold. Among the dangers are greater interest from industrial agriculture, growing road networks, oil exploration and regional drought.
From an ineffective Summit of the 3 Rainforest Basins in 2011 to the Brazaville Declaration in 2018, there have been many promises, but little action.
Is there yet time to save it? Many including the US, UK, Japan, and Germany have pledged foreign aid this year to the UN Congo Basin Forest Partnership. It remains to be seen if enough can be raised to make some meaningful change.
5. The TreeCoin Reforestation Project in Paraguay
To round off this list with some positive news, a reminder that TreeCoin and La Rivera will plant 10 million trees in Paraguay this year in our masterplan for a sustainable forest industry. We believe that our progress in 2020 can provide a model for others to replicate all around the world. All this requires us to raise enough money to purchase the land and saplings required of course! We are happy to say our hybrid token offering (HTO) is now well underway and we are gaining good traction.
The Public Sale Phase I is still open and we have raised over 75% of our $15 million soft cap. It’s not too late to take advantage of a 15% TXC bonus when you invest now!
Finally, as we look ahead to 2020, we want to push harder for our vision and mission at TreeCoin. Time is not on our planet’s side and we are eager to see change. As such we bear a new slogan that embodies our message:
Grow Faster — For your life. Your family. Your TREE’s.
Originally published at https://tree-coin.io on January 31, 2020.
