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Coquitlam society offers B.C. landowners cash to save their trees

An immigrant from Spain started the Tree Legacy Society last year in Coquitlam, a group that aims to combat climate change in B.C.

B.C. landowners who have at least 100 trees on their property can apply to a Coquitlam-based conservation fund for money to save them.

The Tree Legacy Society is reaching out with cash to preserve the privately owned trees and stop them from being cut or commercial harvested.

Successful candidates are eligible to receive $1 per tree per year, for up to $25,000, when they ink an agreement of 15 years or more.

Designed to combat climate change and to preserve forests for future generations, the society was founded last November by Marta Alcalde Gea, who emigrated from Spain to B.C. five years ago.

“From the heat dome that claimed over 600 lives in Metro Vancouver a few years ago to the unprecedented tragedy that is striking Valencia — my hometown — where floods destroyed homes and claimed over 200 lives, it is frightening to witness the devastating effects of climate change around the world,” she said in a news release.

“But beyond the grief, I feel an unwavering responsibility to act. Establishing a non-profit organization here in Coquitlam is my way of launching an innovative model of conservation that can ripple from our community to the entire world.”

The society’s financial incentives to large landowners are part of a pilot project started by Gea who has more than a dozen years in environmental initiatives, law, technology and economics and has served in key roles in the European Parliament and with international foundations, according to the society’s website.


For more details about the pilot program, you can visit the society's website.


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