Cardano Foundation Attains Its 1M Tree Planting Funding Target

The Cardano Foundation, the non-profit organization tasked with overseeing developments on the Cardano Blockchain has achieved its targeted milestone of securing funds for the proposed tree planting exercise in Mombasa, Kenya. The update was shared by the Chief Executive Officer of the Cardano Foundation Frederik Gregaard through a Twitter thread.

According to Frederik, the Cardano Forest project is now fully funded, a move that unveils “this first Cardano Global Impact Challenge for the Cardano Ecosystem truly shows the power of our community.” The Cardano Foundation partnered with Veritree to plant 1 million trees in Kenya this year. Veritree is a startup that deploys blockchain in tree planting initiatives to help combat climate change.

As detailed on the project website, the tree planting initiative was aimed at sourcing donations from members of the public with 1 Cardano (ADA) coin the minimum to be a part of the program. However, donors who contribute a total of 15 ADA tokens will be able to exchange these coins on a ratio of 1:1 with TREE tokens. For each of these exchanges, a tree will be planted on behalf of the Cardano Global Impact Challenge participant, and users will be able to convert their TREE tokens into a digital tree dubbed NFTree.

Donors of 15 ADA or more will notably receive a Digital Land Restoration Certificate, Digital Art, and/or any other reward that comes with the Tier(s) they purchased. Since the initiative was announced, the Cardano Global Impact platform has kept a record of the donations to the cause, with the highest contributor donating 100,000 ADA tokens or 100,000 TREE tokens worth $114,000 at the time of writing according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Cardano Tree Planting Initiative and the Veritree Support

There has been a number of criticisms on blockchain protocols since the introduction of the technology about 13 years ago. While critics say Proof-of-Works (PoW) systems and their energy requirements for mining are bad for the environment, there is hardly any distinction being made with the more energy-efficient Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocols like Cardano.

Irrespective of its current energy efficiency, the Cardano blockchain seeks to be Carbon-neutral and at the same time achieve its goal to be a protocol that can be used for the good of humanity.

“We are striving to position Cardano as a leader in climate impact and this is only possible because of the Global Cardano Community; our incredible team here at @cardano Foundation; the industry group, @CardanoCnbg; and our partnership with @veritree_,” Frederik said in his Twitter thread, adding that “the #CardanoForest will support land restoration and local ecosystem development activities in Mombasa, Kenya. All trees planted will be recorded on the Cardano blockchain for enhanced transparency and serve as public proof of land restoration activities.”

Veritree is best suited for this initiative and it remains the go-to platform for tree planting and climate-related solutions. The startup is also in charge of the 2 million Madagascar reforestation program of Samsung Electronics America, a move that is part of the featured show in the Samsung 837x store debuted on Decentraland last week.