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Project holders and tree ownership

How ownership flows from land to sponsor.

When you sponsor trees through Tree-Nation, you receive both the trees and the CO2 they sequester. Trees and their CO2 always come together. For that allocation to be credible, Tree-Nation has to establish a clear chain of authority from the land where the trees are planted to your sponsor claim. This article explains how that chain works.

The chain of authority

Tree-Nation does not own the land where trees are planted. We do not own the trees themselves. What we operate is the system that connects land owners, implementing partners, and sponsors so that trees and their carbon outcomes can be allocated cleanly.

The chain runs through four parties:

  1. The land owner. A private owner, a leaseholder, or a state authority granting a concession on public land. The land owner authorizes the planting and the long-term presence of the trees.

  2. The implementing partner. A local organization (typically an NGO or community-based developer) that contracts with the land owner, plants the trees, and maintains them over time.

  3. Tree-Nation. The implementing partner authorizes Tree-Nation to allocate the carbon benefits generated by the planted trees.

  4. The sponsor. When you sponsor trees, you purchase the right to claim the CO2 sequestration associated with those specific trees, traceable back through the chain.

Each link is documented. Tree-Nation collects a Project Design Document (PDD) per planting site we invest in. PDDs are available to auditors on request.

Land tenure types we work with

Tree-Nation works across several types of land tenure. Each has a clear path to authorization:

  • Private ownership. The owner authorizes the planting through a written agreement.

  • Private lease. The leaseholder authorizes the planting; the lease defines the time frame.

  • Public tenure. A state or municipal authority grants a concession or permit for reforestation on public land. The implementing partner is named in the authorization.

  • Agroforestry on smallholder plots. When trees are planted across many small farms in a single project, each participating landholder gives written consent. Tree-Nation requires a representative information sample of participating landholders to verify the chain end-to-end.

For each tenure type, the documentation must show that the implementing partner has the right to plant and maintain trees on that specific land.

Tree ownership on the ground

Tree-Nation does not grant any right of ownership, disposition, or use of the trees to sponsors. The owner of the planting site is the owner of the trees.

This is a deliberate choice. Trees grow over decades. The communities and landholders who live alongside them are the ones who actually protect them through that time. Where possible, we focus on productive species (trees that produce fruit, gum, resin, oil, or wood) so that the people who own and care for the trees have ongoing economic reason to keep them standing.

When you sponsor a tree, you fund its planting and maintenance and you receive the CO2 sequestration claim associated with it. You do not become the legal owner of the tree itself.

Preventing double claims

A tree's CO2 is allocated only once.

We verify two conditions at the planting site level:

  1. The implementing partner has not already promised the same trees or their carbon benefits to another carbon program, certification system, or funding arrangement.

  2. The land authorization does not reserve carbon benefits for the land owner or another entity.

If documentation indicates conflicting or overlapping claims, the project is not eligible for Tree-Nation certification.

At the sponsor level, each tree is recorded with a unique Digital Tree ID in our Tree Ledger, linked to a single sponsor and a single CO2 claim. The dual CO2 attribution model (Claimed CO2 vs Shared CO2) ensures that what you sponsor cannot be sold or claimed twice. For the sponsor-side mechanics, see How we handle CO2 attribution to ensure compliance and transparency.

Why this matters

The credibility of any carbon offsetting system depends on whether the chain from land to sponsor is real and exclusive. Our approach is to make this chain transparent and documented. Project polygons are public, PDDs are available to auditors on request, and our methodology and registry are documented and accessible to anyone who wants to examine how Tree-Nation operates.