The market
The global value of slaughtered trees was estimated at $ 85 billion. While a large part of the wood is illegally extracted and escapes all statistics, the added value created by this parallel economy would increase value to more than $ 100 billion. If we add the dough, paper, cardboard and related forest products, we reach a turnover exceeding $ 200 billion. Each year, it is estimated that 3 to 6 billion trees are slaughtered in primary forests, unlike plantations, with a density of 50,000 to 100,000 trees per square kilometer. The main uses of this difficulty renewable source are firewood (46%), pulp wood (always with an impressive percentage of 43%) and construction wood (11%) for a total of 3.7 billions of cubic meters. At its origin, almost 2,000 years ago in China, the paper was a mixture of mulberry and hemp bark with pieces of cotton and linen. The statement of independence from the United States was written on hemp. It was not until 1843 that the transition to wooden paste stimulated the demand of 300 million tonnes of paper from wood, of which only 38% are recycled, and non -woody fibers like bamboo, kenaf and Hemp represent only 7%. Each American citizen uses 340 kilograms (kg) of paper per year, which represents 90 million tonnes for the entire population. Paper consumption has increased by 400% in 40 years. While today most of the trees come from plantations, global demand for paper requires 4 billion trees per year. A large mature tree produces approximately 90,000 pages or 2,700 copies of a 35 -page journal. Private forests in the United States provide 91% of the wood harvested in America. These private owners plant 4 million trees every day, which represents 1.5 billion per year. This effort led to a net increase of 20% of the forest cover in North America in three decades, which Europeans failed to do. Although these efforts were commendable in temperate areas, rainfall once covered 14% of the planet, today they cover only less than 6%. Worse still, vast regions of the world which were once covered with thick forests have been transformed into deserts. Few countries protect their forests, such as Bhutan. The new constitution approved in 2008 stipulates that 60% of the country's area must remain covered with forest. Currently, forests represent 71%, and this percentage is increasing.
Innovation
The planting of trees has been the subject of many innovations. The importation of non -native species, the selection of hybrid trees, the genetic modification of varieties resistant to drought and rapid growth have given rise to trees planting programs that transform our appetite for wood paste into An agricultural system where forest land is treated as agricultural land: a soil to plant, cultivate and harvest. Modern forest farms manage to harvest large amounts of wood for paste only 7 years after planting. Las Gaviotas (see case 6) was the pioneer of forest regeneration based on the symbiotic relationship between native trees and mycorrhizal fungi which allowed the survival of 92% of the seedlings under difficult summer conditions. While many of these efforts show new ways, the biggest challenge is to plant trees where the desert has taken over. Pieter Hoff inherited an export company in Lys and Tulips in the Netherlands which was founded by its grandfather in 1923. Pieter had always been fascinated by the way the trees can push on the rocks. All over the world, we can observe trees 50 meters long which stand on rocks without any form of support, while a commercial plantation a few kilometers away would depend on irrigation and fertilizers to survive. He realized that when we plant trees, either we dig a hole, or we cut a corner in the ground, we destroy the hair transport system of the ground. Worse, when we plant a tree, it has already developed secondary roots which are unable to enter hard, dry and rocky soil. Nature approaches it differently, without resorting to the raw force, it simply deposits seeds on the ground, often transported there and covered with bird excrement. Water capillary drainage remains intact and the tree receives the right mixture of nutrients to start in difficult conditions. Pieter then designed a two -hole bucket. It couldn't be simpler. One of the holes is used to collect rainwater, produce and capture water from condensation inside the box, and the other hole in the center is used to sow a seed or plant a sowing. Once a little water is imprisoned in the box, it maintains the low temperature, creating a fresh microclimate. A wick flows in 50 centilitres (CC) of water every day, not enough to push well and not enough to die. This challenges to develop swivel roots and find water itself. After testing the process for three years in the Sahara desert, Pieter decided to sell his family business and then created the Aquapro company which promotes the Groasis Waterboxx. Its planting system is based on a box that can be used ten times, allowing the planting of ten trees. It is called the waterboxx. Subsequently, Pieter won the Popular Science magazine innovation prize in 2010.
The first cash flow
The planting approach is limited to breaking the hard ground, creating a small hole 10 centimeters deep, planting the seed and putting the waterboxx on the ground. If a year later the roots are quite deep, then we simply lift the box and reuse it elsewhere. The popular interest in its invention and the simplicity of its application allowed Pieter to create an online sales company based in the Netherlands (Aquapro), from which we can order waterboxx containers. This open source approach, which does not require any prior expertise or training, has proven itself in 30 projects in France, Spain, Morocco, the United States (California), Kenya, Mongolia and Oman. The average survival rate of newly planted trees with waterboxx is 88% under climatological conditions which would normally allow only 10% of success. This provides solid network references with partners in large -scale operations.
The opportunity
Pieter addresses the planting of trees, the fight against erosion and the inversion of desertification not only as a service to society and the environment, but also as an opportunity to stimulate the corporate spirit by proposing A transparent business model based on a proven concept. It offers future businessmen a simple mathematical model with a series of basic hypotheses describing all the planting of trees for food, fodder, dough or biofuel. The use of transparent accounts, making these opportunities within everyone's reach with reasonable yields from a value of no value, in fact a competitive investment proposal where the initial requirements are labor and the desire to succeed, rather than a great provision of capital. This not only makes it possible to generate a stable income, when deserted land becomes green and begins to support communities, but also to constitute a share capital. The trigger for success is the entrepreneur who has the skills necessary to achieve this and the ability to assess risks. This is one of the fundamental characteristics of the blue economy.
