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Restoring degraded and deforested landscapes is one of the defining challenges of our time, particularly for rural communities and smallholders whose livelihoods depend upon healthy land. At a recent event at CBD COP16, ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ��, GEF, and Alliance Bioversity International showcased the – an initiative that is using cell phone and blockchain technology to address some of the biggest challenges to scaling up ecologically sound restoration in rural areas.

The My Farm Trees (MFT) platform was chosen for display at the Technology & Innovation Expo at CBD COP16 – the biennial global biodiversity conference. MFT is a set of apps helping to overcome several barriers to scaling up tropical forest restoration by addressing the technological and financial constraints limiting more widespread uptake. They provide small landholders in local communities with sets of easy-to-use tools for seed collection that encourage the use of native tree species. The app enables local communities to act as forest stewards by helping them to plant trees and monitor growth. They are rewarded with digital payments that provide an economic incentive to engage in sustainable forest restoration.

“Too often, tree planting programs stop after seedlings are in the ground, resulting in high mortality rates,” said Joshua Schneck, ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� GEF/GCF Portfolio Manager for Global Initiatives. “MFT is piloting direct payments to farmers and community members for restoration, using readily available mobile network providers in both countries, and, importantly, providing incentives to follow up with tree maintenance and care.”

The MFT team organized a panel with ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ��; the World Bank; ATREE; Biovision; the recently launched Global Biodiversity Standard, TGBS; and other Alliance Bioversity-CIAT members, who work with local communities, policy implementation, gender, sustainability finance, and biodiversity monitoring, respectively. The panel was an important convening of these key organisations to discuss how local communities can be empowered by technology and innovation to scale forest restoration work globally, utilising the MyFarmTrees apps. The recording of this discussion is available .

“You cannot achieve restoration without engaging and working with the community,” said Chetan Kumar, Global Head of the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Forest and Grasslands Team, in his opening remarks, while emphasising how ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� and partners like CGIAR and CIAT are working together to advance a shared vision of biodiversity conservation, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable livelihood development through innovative initiatives like MFT. “We need those tools, essential frameworks, and financing mechanisms, like those of My Farm Trees, which will empower these communities to make restoration sustainable.”

MFT has grown from several years of Alliance research on native tree species, forest ecology, and blockchain technology to mainstream biodiversity in production areas while improving livelihoods, creating entrepreneurship opportunities, increasing food security, and supporting climate mitigation and landscape restoration. “At COP, we’ve received incredible demand from various organisations in attendance who are interested in establishing new MFT pilot programs in other countries or in partnering with the platform,” said Fidel Chiriboga, MFT’s scaling lead from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.

“My Farm Trees is a really powerful platform to democratise incentives to farmers to deliver multiple ecosystem services, especially biodiversity and climate mitigation. We had so many valuable discussions   around financing restoration, and with people with shared visions to discuss the next steps in scaling MFT – delivering tools like this at scale will bring the impact – there is an urgent need to scale up successful native tree restoration,” added Chris Kettle, an Alliance scientist and MFT’s global lead. “COP16 has been a great experience.”

MFT is funded by GEF, implemented by ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ��, and backed by local and national governments, associations, and research organisations. Piloted in Cameroon and Kenya with remarkable success, MFT is currently under implementation expansion elsewhere in several countries across Africa and Southeast Asia, and with confirmed interest across Latin America.

Learn more about My Farm Trees by checking out this , following MFT on , or visiting .