CrowdForest Fundraising CLG is a charitable organisation (RCN 20206185) based in Ireland. We work with professional suppliers to plant and manage our forests. Our mission is to acquire land and plant native woodland, with the purpose of sequestering carbon to mitigate climate change, creating ecosystems and increasing biodiversity.
Our Directors do not receive any salaries - we only reimburse expenses, to keep costs to a minimum and maximise the impact of donations from our backers.
A couple years ago, we started feeling responsible for our personal carbon footprint of the past decades, and the impact that has on the planet. When we came across an article in Science Magazine in 2019, it convinced us that reforesting is among the most effective and cheap strategies to mitigate climate change.
Inspired by this research, we wanted to start planting trees. But to guarantee the longevity of the forest, we felt we needed to own the land. We started investigating what it would require to buy a few hectares of land and plant a small forest.
As it turns out, it's quite complicated! As an individual, it’s hard to do all the required research and paperwork and stay sufficiently motivated to bring the project to a successful conclusion.
So that’s why we started CrowdForest - to make it easy for individuals or organizations to create their own forests using crowdfunding.
There are of course already many initiatives that plant trees - and we think that’s great - but often these organizations do not own the land they plant on. We see ownership as a necessary safe-guard for the long term future of the forest.
Diarmuid is a tech entrepreneur from Ireland and lives in Antwerp, Belgium. Diarmuid hopes CrowdForest will empower our backers to directly address climate change.
James is an advocate for native woodland reforestation. Retired since 2017, he lives in Galway, Ireland.
James is a video producer based in the West of Ireland with a background in broadcast TV production - which is where his interest in the CrowdForest project stems from, having worked as Producer and Researcher on the popular Irish Language TV series 'Garraí Glas', which focuses on organic, natural gardening methods.
We currently only plant forests in Ireland, but it’s possible that Crowdforest will expand to other countries in future. We only operate in jurisdictions with stable governments and in areas where we can enforce ownership of the land we purchase. This is to control the long term future of our forests.
In Ireland it's relatively easy to purchase agricultural land for the purpose of establishing a forest. This contrasts with other European countries, such as Germany, where such activity is discouraged / banned.
Ireland has one of the lowest percentages of forested land in Europe, and currently offers a generous program to subsidize the planting of new forests, especially for native woodland.
