Treewala - play games, plant trees, interesting business
In Natural Resource Management there is a lot of talk about developing income independent of government funding, a worthy goal. Not always easy to achieve though. Some groups, for example Noosa Landcare, have developed quite a successful service provider model which allows them to buffer the elastic nature of government funding.
While others like Tiaro Landcare have become quite clever at raising funds by selling chocolate turtles and running fishing competitions. The Tiaro group use their hard earned funds to protect the endangered Mary River Turtle. However there appear to be very few groups like Tiaro and Noosa can continue in the medium to long term without government funding.
Earlier this year a study by the ANU found “it’s the environment stupid” i.e the environment was the Australian public’s number 1 concern. With this setting, it seems to me the broader public are genuinely concerned about sustainable agriculture and the environment. However how much is there that the average urban resident is prepared to do to assist either of these causes. Perhaps there is room for innovative business models that can raise funds and or other forms of support for Natural Resource Management and Sustainable Agriculture.
Today I was notified of a new person (chiefwala) was following me on Twitter (a neat micro-blogging tool with many uses for NRM). Nice to meet you Rajeev.
So I checked out his site Treewala :: Play. Learn. Save the Planet at www.greenwala.com/treewala/index.php.
The concept is simple play Treewala’s trivia game, get 20 correct answers and the company buys a tree to be planted by the Marion Institute to plant trees as part of the Las Gaviotas project. (links not working at time of posting). Presumably all funding comes from the advertising on the competition page. Rajeev and the team must have done their job well because a) 20 correct answers gets enough traffic to pay for a tree and b) they have Dell sponsored reGeneration onboard as an advertiser, that’s pretty good for starters.
Anyway there is plenty of food for thought for Natural Resource Managers. Is the reforestation appropriate and conducted in a way that creates a nett positive for the environment? We all have assets that we are working with. Which of these assets could capture the public’s attention and potentially wallets? Are there ethical advertisers who you would enter into partnership with in a similar venture in your organisation.
As always I’d love to hear you comments.
If you are not involved in Landcare, Natural Resource Management, or Sustainable Agriculture, would you like your entertainment to provide advertising revenue to green causes such as reforestation? Or would you prefer a direct donation model?
If you are working in Landcare, Natural Resource Management, or Sustainable Agriculture, what are your thoughts can you see yourself working with advertisers to generate income for your onground activites? If so which advertisers would you like to work with?
Tags: Landcare, Treewala, Twitter, NRM, NaturalResourceManagement, SustainableAgriculture
