latest draft

3) Who can participate and will be able to make a living out of tree planting?

The scheme is open to all, young and old, poor or rich, female or male, but
In practice first in those countries for which funding can be found and the government is willing to cooperate. In (oil) rich countries governments can pay themselves.
This scheme is designed to go worldwide
poor countries first and foremost
sparsely populated regions will profit most, also in the richer countries where also there might be lack of opportunities for the rural youth.
started in SL
Afghanistan first target, most needed,
All people
Children, schools
Women, do most of the agriculture and tree planting
family, school class, hospital, church, mosque or company.
No identity card needed, registration fingerprint + unique code, on paper and on-line
Refugees

4) How to get to our target of 10 billions of trees planted by 2020?
One Euro per tree is attractive if you earn one Dollar a day
In general we will rely on market forces to plant this huge number: not only planting and tending for trees should be financially attractive, also starting tree clubs at local, regional and national levels should be rewarded. Payments will be related to the number of trees planted or to special campaign in irrigation and tree protection and for initiating other energy (saving) schemes.
But all starts with national campaigns preferable by radio and tv and demonstration projects, handing over starting kits with seeds and information (club rules, how to organize forestry) and word of mouth are other essential ways of disseminating the scheme.

The numbers might not be so huge after all, only…………how to get so much money? Now we com to the heart of the matter: tree planting is the most sustainable and long term method to stem the current unprecedented quick growth and to store CO2 in wood. Besides treeplanting by communities will be cheaper than commercial forestry (the pay per tree must be always well below the commercial rates) because own tree nurseries, own compost and own labour.
So we have have an ultra cheap way to filter the air and cool the earth, at the same time, with the same money we invest in the rural poor directly in a way who might prove to be highly cost effective and corruption proof an on top of that you invest in a valuable timber crop, THE super material, carbon-wise.
These amounts needed could be found in many a budget, not least in that of most of us, the consultants! But hopefully a lot of military, food aid, refugee aid, disaster aid, structural aid can be saved and clean up tax on airpolution (other than CO2), fossil fuels, deforestation, red meat, financial exuberance and what not. The challenge is to the money shifted from one place to another, call it the carbon revolution

So it is not meant for big forestry companies, big land owners, (for them there will be other schemes like REDD) who organize the planting from top down. In that case lots of money is needed for surveys, overheads and later for maintenance, leaving the villagers as poor and sometimes driven of their land. So to discourage big business high jacking the scheme the number of trees should be limited to 600-1000 trees per individual or per (family)unit

5) How to monitor the amount of trees planted and growing?
Monitoring(= tree count) is threefold: by sattelite, by regional tree clubs, and by peer pressure
Tree planting is relatively easy to monitor, since trees are fixed in place and can also be counted by satellite (at least forest cover and the health of the trees can be inspected, but even individual trees can often be spotted from the sky). Only growth of trees is calculated. To prevent fraud we have to learn from the micro credit schemes, which use groups and peer pressure to make individuals comply with repayment schemes. Tree Clubs have to be formed in the villages, if possible as branches of already existing societies. These in turn will be monitored by regional NGOs, GOs or other, existing or newly formed, with a good reputation and these again by a national agency an so on up to an international audit (by the carbon authorities?). In case of serious fraud at any level the clubs (or even countries) have to be suspended. Some steps could be skipped with our modern IT and money transfer that come with it and indiviuals might sponsor a number of trees plotted on a google tree map on line.

6) How to operate a community tree club and get to our target of 10 billions of trees planted?
Tree clubs are a kind of small banks, paying out credits an giving small loans and at a national level they should be registered as such; the organisation, social control and conflict resolution should be simular as micro finance schemes. If possible, tree clubs should be linked to micro finance schemes, especially in the initial stages. Treeclubs should be small: locally max. 20 people min. 3 people optimum 4-12, so that everybody knows everybody an since payments might stop altogether there is strong incentive not to cheat.
Microfinance units can be member owned, called credit unions or are owned by NGOs, often international. They work well in sub urban with a lot of enterprenural talent, but less in sparcely populated areas.
Tree credits could make microfinance viable an even profitable especially in rural areas.

7) Is it difficult or expensive to grow trees?
In principle we rely on the local knowledge of the rural folk, they have to decide where, when and how to plant the tree species most suited to the local environment. If village tree nurseries use locally collected seeds (job for forest people?) and the trees are planted with locally produced fertilizer by one themselves, trees can we very cheap indeed, and within reach of everybody also the poorest women and even children. Tree planting and wooded areas can turned into an educating experience.
Except orchards, we do not promote single species plantations, better plant like in a park with many different species and sizes of trees, more healthy an more trees pr acre can flourish that way.
In semi-arid areas watering young saplings is needed, while protection against goats an other animals is foremost. The first 10 years the sapling is still venerable, that is why the tree grower is paid during 10 years for caring for the trees. In very infertile areas, manure and water alone might not be enough to grow healthy trees, an intermediate crop might be needed and if local knowledge has been lost, outsiders might have to step in. The local efforts will be supported from all levels with input of knowledge, research and seeds; again regional tree clubs play a large role to collect and disseminate tree growing related news. In very infertile areas, manure and water alone might not be enough to grow healthy trees, an intermediate crop might be needed and if local knowledge has been lost, outsiders might have to step in.