Freetown the Treetown
#FreetownTheTreetown is Freetown City Council's campaign to plant and grow one million trees and raise the city's vegetation cover by half, with planting focused on steep slopes prone to landslides, water sources and community spaces.
Inside the project
The World Bank described the campaign in July 2021: 250,000 trees in its first phase, 700,000 more planned for 2021 to 2022, and 50,000 mangroves.
Each seedling is logged with a geotagged photo in the TreeTracker app, and growers are paid in mobile-money micropayments as their trees survive. The World Bank counted more than 550 short-term jobs, mainly for women and young people.
The Earthshot Prize named the campaign a 2023 finalist, describing a pay-to-grow model whose tokens are sold on private and carbon markets and a survival rate above 80 percent.
Objectives
- Plant and grow one million trees
- Increase Freetown's vegetation cover by 50 percent
- Stabilise slopes vulnerable to landslides and protect water sources
Approach
- Community growers plant and care for seedlings; each tree is photographed and geotagged so its survival can be checked.
- Growers receive mobile-money payments tied to tree survival, and the sale of impact tokens funds further planting.
Sources
Inspect 2 sources
- blogs.worldbank.org ↗https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/sustainablecities/freetownthetreetown-campaign-using-digital-tools-encourage-tree-cultivation
- earthshotprize.org ↗https://earthshotprize.org/winners-finalists/freetown-the-treetown/
Explore related climate work
Find other projects and tools for monitoring, restoration and climate adaptation.
Browse projectsBrowse tools