Giving back to the planet is what we are built on and we have been doing it since the very beginning of our journey. 

At WoodWatch we try to celebrate planet Earth every day, with every manufactured watch and with every order created. We wanted to take the opportunity to introduce you to our environmental mission and the biggest partner who helps us make it come true.

Why are we planting trees?

We love the unique attributes of wood and how beautiful it looks when incorporated into a watch or accessory design. That’s why we have to look for ways to give back to this amazing natural resource and in our eyes, planting trees is the best way to do it. 

There are many reasons for this. We, humans, need trees for our survival. Apart from the more known fact that they provide us with clean air, trees act as so-called carbon sinks. Planting new trees in return for harvesting old ones creates more space to get CO2 out of our air and drives away climate change, even if just a bit! To learn how planting trees saves the environment, read one of our previous articles!  

Our journey

Since our founding year in 2013, we have been cooperating with Trees for All and proudly supporting their projects in Malaysia, the Philippines, the Netherlands, Costa Rica and Uganda. This organization uses donations to restore unique types of forests in these countries. For instance, they were able to support the restoration of tropical rainforests in Malaysia and currently they’re trying to achieve the same in Costa Rica’s national park.

To add on to this amazing project, four years later we partnered up with Trees for the Future, because we wanted to have an even more direct impact. Since then, for every WoodWatch sold, we have been planting one tree in their Forest Garden project in Senegal, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. 

Our beloved partner: Trees for the Future 

Together with this organization, we help each other reach our similar goals. Trees for the Future aims at ending poverty and hunger by training farmers to regenerate their land and we are proudly part of their Forest Garden project. This is a 4-year training program that enables farmers in the above-mentioned African countries to plant trees that bring nutrients back to the degraded soil in their communities. Over the course of its existence, Trees for the Future planted over 225.1 million trees and we’re extremely happy about being a part of it.

Trees for the Future is ending the vicious cycle many African farm families go through. With their lack of knowledge about sustainable and quality farming practices, farmers are unintentionally doing harm to their already-degraded lands. The tree-planting program teaches farmers how to sustainably grow their fruits and vegetables all while receiving income. 

The impact of these efforts is more than marvelous! Only in the year 2020, over 25,000 new forest gardens were established and almost 36 million trees were planted! The organization is proving that sustainable food systems that capture CO2 into the biomass of the trees and healthy soils are the way to fight climate change. And 98% of farmers admitted they will be able to cope in the future thanks to the project. These are real, substantial changes in people’s lives. All this while also improving the environment!

What’s next?

Last year we began our biggest commitment to transparency of our environmental efforts yet! Our watches now have a unique geo-code engraved on the backplate. This code refers to the specific location of the tree that was planted for the purchase of the watch. Specific collections are linked to specific locations. For example, our Chrono Slate from the Classic collection shows the coordinates of Mable, Uganda, where we plant a tree every time you buy this bad boy. How does it feel to know you’re perhaps wearing the home of a newly planted tree on your wrist?

In 2020, we set a goal for ourselves to plant 1 million trees by 2025 and Trees for the Future wishes to plant 1 billion of them by 2030. We believe that with our cooperation, and the help of our amazing watch and accessory holders, we’ll together achieve these ambitious goals.