Compensate for your carbon emissions by preserving and planting giant trees.

We present you with new solutions to offset your carbon footprint. Become a guardian of one of the 7400 Green Giants.

What if you could offset your carbon emissions by preserving today's large trees and planting the future ones?

On average, the lifestyle of a Portuguese person represents 5 tons of carbon released per year into the atmosphere. It is an alarming number to add to others that each day contribute to the greenhouse effect and consequent climate change.

We created Biodiverse Carbon to help you take action, offsetting the carbon emissions from your daily commutes, your shopping and eating habits, your travels, among other seemingly harmless elements of your daily routine. The solution lies in one of the most effective natural-based technologies in the world: the Green Giants.

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The Green Giants are old trees so big that we cannot embrace them. As they grow, these Giants gradually offer us ecosystem services that are essential to life:

• They sequester carbon while producing oxygen;
• Remove pollutants from the air while cooling the soil with its shade;
• They prevent floods while helping to fill aquifers;
• They are home to hundreds of living beings, such as birds, insects, plants and fungi.

They do all of this daily, simultaneously, just as they did during the last tens or hundreds of years they lived and grew up. They also carry stories and traditions, from several generations, that unite us to the natural world. Each of them is an ally.

But since 2017, more than 450 have disappeared. It is urgent to care for and preserve these beings with super-powers, at the risk of losing them day after day.

In February 2021 we formed VERDE with the aim of changing the way we conserve nature and biodiversity in Portugal, integrating this theme in the daily lives of each citizen. The Biodiverse Carbon project is our first step in a chain of actions to finance the preservation of the 7400 Giants so far mapped, but also to plant future Giants, and where simultaneously you, as a Guardian, will be able to complement all the work you have done to decrease your environmental impact.

Each micro gesture makes a big difference. Wherever you are on your journey, find out which of our 5 options best suits you.

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This is the "kick start" for a monthly subscription system that we will implement in a second phase. After reaching the goals of this crowdfunding, you can enjoy, for a month, your personalized Online Guardian Kit , which will be sent by email and includes:

• VERDE membership dues (during subscription months);
• Periodic report of compensated personal impact - sent by newsletter;
• Information about preserved and planted trees (species, location, dimensions);
• Weekly tips on reducing your personal footprint - sent by newsletter.

By staying with us you will be part of a support community, and you will be a key part of this network of preservation and regeneration of giant trees. For each month of subscription, more Giants we preserve, more trees we plant, and the greater our role will be in the various environmental struggles we face.

A tight hug, one that two hands do not reach for hugging, just like when we try to hug our beloved Giant trees.

About the author

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VERDE is an association created to integrate the conservation and regeneration of nature in the daily life of the Portuguese citizens. We know that nature has the magic to make each cycle happen by itself and, therefore, we want to act as an almost invisible hand, implementing concrete actions, with the minimum possible intervention to achieve the maximum preservation results. Through the creation of strategies studied meticulously by our team, we want to value the territory and preserve it through a strategic plan of actions with short and long-term impact. This is the biggest challenge that we are honored to take on.

That's why we created VERDE. Through this name we intend to make it clear that we want to merge and not overlap the existing landscape. VERDE arises, in 2021, from the culmination of many years of work of its representatives in favor of the preservation of nature. It also arises from the need to create an independent body that can embody and consolidate all the work developed in this space of time.

It is a non-profit association , headquartered in Lousada , where the Municipality has been playing a leading role in local environmental actions, adopting a strategy that has been rewarded, which the founding members of the association have had the privilege of helping to lead to through a holistic view of local needs.

It was in this context that we realized that we are facing a growing momentum of community involvement in favor of nature conservation, where the power of community involvement with the surrounding nature inspires us and shows the urgency to replicate these and other actions elsewhere. A momentum that has long been awaited by everyone involved and that should be used to implement and foster a new look under the preservation and the primordial connection of each one of us to nature.

VERDE is born from this momentum , more specifically from a very special project for its founders: Gigantes Verdes. Coordinated by the President of VERDE, João Gonçalo Soutinho, this project appeared at the end of 2017 with the aim of getting to know the large trees in the municipality of Lousada. He quickly realized that the information compiled could be used to have a real impact for the preservation of these natural structures, which are distributed throughout the territory and are managed by the people of the land. A project that has grown and that, in 2021, reached the point of making us see that it is essential not only to know where these trees are, but also how we can find lasting solutions. A work started in the main house, Lousada, which we hope to start expanding to the rest of the country soon.

Budget and due dates

We are requesting €3500 as a base value for the launch of Biodiverse Carbon. The funding raised will be a “kick start”, not only for VERDE to implement this project in July 2021 in the form of a monthly subscription platform, but also for all subscribers who will have the opportunity to join us and take advantage of the Kit do Online Guardian.

Biodiverse carbon is a project that will make it possible to find solutions for the preservation of the current giants and the planting of those of the future through contracts with the owners of these trees, which are governed by the attached Regulations.

The funding raised will be used to build a community that supports this idea and that helps us to play an ever greater role in the preservation and conservation of biodiversity.

In summary, the Biodiversity Carbon Project was designed so that only 20% of the budget raised is used for internal management, with the rest being invested directly in the territory. Of the amount raised:

• 53% will be used directly for the preservation of Green Giants
• 27% will be used for planting and restoring ecosystems
• 20% for internal financial management, including here the percentage of PPL

The amount related to the Green Giant Preservation actions will be used to create an Ecosystem Services Management and Remuneration Subsidy to be attributed to the inventoried Green Giant owners who have committed to preserve their giants. This subsidy will be given priority to trees that satisfy the greatest possible number of the following attributes:

1. High Risk Tree
2. High ecological value tree
3. Tree of public or municipal interest
4. Tree found in areas of potential assisted natural regeneration

The value related to the actions of planting and restoring ecosystems will be used to create and restore areas for the provision of ecosystem services, in particular, carbon sequestration.

They will be able to consult all the information related to the Biodiverse Carbon Project in its regulation, available as an attachment to this campaign (in Portuguese).

The preservation and planting actions will continue until the end of the calendar year, with a public session for granting subsidies to the owners in December 2021 and voluntary actions for planting starting in November 2021. All subscribers will be contacted again in July. 2021 in order to ascertain their interest in remaining as subscribers to this project.

Images

Documents

• Regulamento Carbono Biodiverso

  pdf • 2.09 MB