Why we started
What has driven and still drives us? The fact that more and more people live in urban environments and lose touch with nature. We are driven to reconnect people with nature and make everyone realise we’re one with nature. Much of the fun we get out of it—lies in developing new ways to do things. We are not bound by convention. We want social equality, positive climate impact and connect any-, and everyone to restore nature.
Through our platform we strive towards an intersectional environmentalism: justice for people and the planet. And we figured, we don’t want to and also can’t do it alone.. soo.. Want to join us?
That is why we’re working our trunks off together with nature organisations to end deforestation, mono-planting, unsustainable reforestation and tree-planting/carbon credits scams. To make it easy for you to make the right tree-choice and to stay connected to it. That’s why we created the Treemendo online network to help mitigate and adapt to climate change and to improve biodiversity with afforestation. We love saving and growing diverse nature for everyone while restoring whole landscapes by enhancing diversity and the healthy functioning of ecosystems.
The problem
It’s not going well with our planet. Animals, people, and forests are being exploited instead of cared for. This while most life on land lives in forests. However, 1 football field of forest is destroyed every second. This diminishes planetary health, by destroying livelihoods, the extinction of species and acceleration of the climate crisis.
Emissions
Around 25% of global emissions come from the land sector, the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after the energy industry. About half of these come from deforestation and forest degradation. But there is hope, because forests capture carbon dioxide which would otherwise be free in the atmosphere warming up the planet.
Agriculture
Agriculture is one of the most significant causes of deforestation. It sounds harsh, and frankly it is but slash-and-burn agriculture is the simplest solution for farmers to nutriate the soil, by cutting down the trees, and burning what remains. This makes the soil more fertile as incinerated biomass provides nitrogen and other nourishing nutrients for the soil, but not for long.
The soil only stays nutrient rich for about two years, after this time, the nutrients from the burned biomass are used up. When this happens, farmers pack up and move on to the next section of the rainforest, leaving their farmland behind for others to use for cattle rearing, or abandon it completely.
Logging
Logging is also a common cause of deforestation as trees are cut down to use for wood and paper products. The most harmful one is called “clear cutting.” This is when an area of forest is completely deforested, leaving no trees alive in that area.
Oftentimes mono-planting (when only one species of tree is planted in that area), is a go-to remediation plan. And surprise, it’s not great, although this does help to remediate the complete loss of trees, it doesn’t remediate much else. All of the biodiversity lost to clear cutting is not remedied by mono-planting. This is because biodiversity is supported by a diversity of flora as well as fauna. Mono-cropping is therefore not a regenerative solution to clear cut land.
Water Cycles
Trees undergo a natural process called “transpiration.” Yes, a little like sweating, but not the smelly kind. This is when the leaves of trees secrete water which is evaporated into the atmosphere. When this water evaporates, it becomes clouds, which swells with moisture and rains back down again. When trees are cut down in a forest, this eliminates or decreases the amount of transpiration, which means that the amount of rainfall in that area will decrease. This can lead to droughts in the area and for example affect local farmers and their crops.
Loss of Biodiversity
The loss of forests also means the loss of habitats for many species of plants and animals. Between 70 and 80% of the world’s plants and animals live in forests and are losing their habitats to deforestation.
Soil Erosion
When trees are cut down, it means that the surrounding soil becomes loosened from the ground, and can be blown away by wind, or washed away by rain. This is the ideal recipe for both flooding when there’s heavy rains, and for droughts, since the water can’t be stored in the ground.
The importance of forests
Have you succeeded in breathing without oxygen? Of course not. Because we humans and other life on our planet depend on it! Forests offer air to breath, provide homes for animals, give watershed protection, prevent soil erosion and mitigate climate change by storing carbon in trees. Not to mention how they help us lower our stress levels, study better and give us amazing spaces for recreation. Caring for forests, is caring for planetary health.
Carbon storage
The biggest, largest, mega, super storehouses of carbon suckers? Oceans! Second place (but still very important)? Correct, forests. Forests are the world’s second largest storehouses of carbon. They soak up carbon dioxide that would otherwise be free in the atmosphere and contribute to ongoing changes in climate patterns.
Forests absorb harmful pollutants like carbon dioxide and release clean oxygen for us to breathe. Did you know that in urban environments, trees absorb pollutant gases like nitrogen oxides, ozone, and carbon monoxide, and sweep up particles like dust and smoke? We’re lucky to have the forests we have because strong trees act as carbon sinks, they offset carbon and reduce the effects of climate change.
Fact: Diverse forests store incredible amounts of carbon, especially old growth forests, however, mono-planted forests often emit carbon.
Fertile soil
Soil erosion is one of the damages done by agricultural activities and logging, which can be reversed when we’re planting healthy diverse forests. These trees will then play a key role in capturing rainwater and reducing the risk of natural disasters like floods and landslides. Their intricate root systems act like filters, removing pollutants and slowing down the water’s absorption into the soil. This process prevents harmful waterslide erosion and reduces the risk of over-saturation and flooding. We know, it sounds like magic.
Biodiversity
In its broadest sense, biodiversity is the term used to describe all life on our planet, in all its variety. And did you know a single tree can be home to hundreds of species of insect, fungi, moss, mammals, and plants? Depending on the kind of food and shelter they need, different forest animals require different types of habitat. What’s certain, is that without forests filled with trees, these insects, animals and other life would have nowhere to go.
Our method to afforestation
Through an online platform we created a network of people and businesses who funded the planting and growing of forests. You could say that to succeed we need an inter-species network of caregivers: starting from the funding, different communities of planters and followed by the essential help of insects, animals and fungi who eventually make the trees part of diverse forests.
Networks
Forests underground form complex root systems which connect trees thanks to a web of mycorrhizal fungi. A web of what?! A social form of fungi and plants through the roots. They allow exchanges of water, carbon, nitrogen, minerals, and other nutrients between individual plants. This phenomenon is referred to as wood wide web (a term by the biologist and forest ecologist Suzanne Simard).
At Treemendo we have taken inspiration from this fungal web. We make connections on the ground through partners and projects to help strengthen community planting and protection of forests, empower people, enhance biodiversity and regeneratively grow more forests.
We contribute to that in a regenerative way, by accepting and embracing the complex network of connections: afforestation is more than just planting trees – it is restoring a whole landscape by enhancing diversity and the healthy functioning of ecosystems.
Transparency
First things first, why is transparency so important when it comes to tree-planting and growing? Well because tree-planting and growing is a far-from-simple process. Hence the ecological dad zones when we plant monocultures instead of diverse forests. Not even mentioning destroying biodiversity when non-native species are planted. And of course the social component, when local communitie are not involved or when there are no local partnerships, these freshly planted forests-to-be, won’t make it at all.
Partners
Planting trees and growing them into diverse forests is a true profession. Which is why we work with the experts in the field (literally!). We choose our partners based on several criteria. Besides no mono-planting, diverse forests and growing them into old forests, paying fair wages and actively including local communities are requirements too.
Partners we work with:
Staatsbosbeheer, Africa Woodgrow, Borders Forest Trust Scotland, Bosgroepen
Join our mission
Everyone can and needs to contribute in order to bring the forests back to life. We believe every citizen and every organization has the power to create a positive impact. This can be through caring about and for forests, and stimulating forest planting.
Our community
Companies that have planted with us
Impact
Planting forests generates social & environmental impact.
Life
Creating habitat
for species
Social
Providing jobs and
healthy living conditions
Climate
Capturing greenhouse
gasses
Health
Connecting people
with nature
Planting partners
The nature organisations we partner with.
