Biochartrust is an online platform which connects farmers in developing countries who would like to use biochar in their fields with the rest of the world to help them find sponsors to finance their projects. Through Biochartrust, a visitor can see the projects of farmers which still need fundings and make a donation online to help the farmers implementing their projects. Biochartrust also keeps track of the running projects and provides regular updates and feedbacks so that the donators can follow the evolution and the results of the sponsored projects.

Biochartrust has been created by Terracarbona, a French initiative whose activities aim at promoting the use of biochar all around the world, in order to improve the quality and fertility of the soil, reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, sequester carbon in the soil and thus contribute to the reduction of rural poverty and the mitigation of climate change. Please visit Terracarbona's website for more information.

Biochartrust is focused on small-scale biochar projects conducted in developing countries, in which the production of the crops is devoted to the farmers' families or the local market.
Typically, a farmer or a small cooperative wishes to apply biochar on (part of) their gardens or fields but lack the fundings to buy all the inputs, prepare the soil, irrigate and cultivate the area properly. Biochartrust comes here into play by allowing donators living somewhere else in the world to contribute financially to the projects.

Biochartrust selects the participating farmers with the help of its network of local partners (NGOs, institutions, etc.) who better know the context and can identify the most reliable and motivated farmers. Another requirement is that they have easy access to the phone and/or internet and can be reached easily to give update on their projects. A selection of "best projects" with special rewards for the winning farmers will also be regularly organized through the website of Biochartrust.

It is crucial to guarantee that the production of charcoal used as biochar by the sponsored farmers does not contribute to the deforestation and/or increase the pollution of the local environment. Unfortunately, in most developing countries today, charcoal is still produced from non-renewable biomass sources and with traditional methods (e.g. earth mound kilns) that are inefficient and harmful to the environment.

Biochartrust promotes therefore as far as possible alternative methods for biochar production, that have been improved to be more efficient and to be used with renewable biomass (e.g. rice husks, cotton stems) as feedstock. When no such device is available but farmers are motivated to perform biochar trials, Biochrtrust determines with them the best solution according to their context and capacity and add the price for the construction of the decided technology in the price for the project. A small biochar cookstove for one household can be as cheap as a few US dollars, while a pyrolyzer for a large production can reach several thousands US dollars. A list of available biochar production technologies can be consulted online.

In order to maximize the success of the sponsored projects, Biochartrust works systematically with local partners such as NGOs or consultants that are qualified to monitore such projects in the specific regions and environments of the candidate farmers.

These local partners have the responsibility to help farmers manage the money given by the sponsors, implement properly the projects and meet the objectives and schedule initially planned.

On the other hand, they also have the duty to guide farmers to more autonomy and to build capacity for self-management so that farmers can soon handle their projects themselves in a responsible way without external support.

Whatsoever, these partners will control the development of every project and send frequent feedbacks to Biochartrust which will update accordingly the projects webpages. Biochartrust will, in turn, regularly control its local partners to make sure of their entire reliability.

In the very unprobable case that a sponsored project can finally not be implemented (e.g. unexpected climatic event, change of residence of the farmer), Biochartrust reserves the right to use the money given by the sponsors to other projects. Of course, the sponsors will be notified and redirected to the webpages of the new projects supported by their donation.

Anyone can make an online donation to become a sponsor, there is no need to register for anything. The secure online payment is achieved through Paypal, which accepts all major credit/debit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover), eChecks, bank transfers, and PayPal accounts. The payment can be done more easily if you already have a Paypal account but this is not mandatory for a donation to Biochartrust.

Yes, a personal account will be automatically created for you when you perform your first donation. Then, you can login anytime to see the history of your orders or change some of your contact information.

This is entirely up to you. The current amount of money donated so far for every project is indicated in the project list (right-most column) so that you can see anytime precisely which projects you can sponsor and how much you can donate.

You can choose to donate as much as you want, there is no minimum amount of money required because we believe that every little contribution can make the difference. You can also donate several times for the same project as long as some money is missing, and of course you can also sponsor different projects appearing on the list. In other words, you are entirely free to distribute your donation as you want.

When you checkout your donation, you will be redirected to Paypal which will proceed your payment securely, from a credit card or a PayPal account.

Usually, your money is not given directly to the farmer but rather to recognized and trustful partners (NGOs, universities etc.) operating in the regions of the trials you selected. These partners are in direct contact with the farmers and make sure your money is indeed used to buy the biochar needed by the farmers. However, this intermediary service is not financed by your donation which is entirely devoted to paying the biochar. The additional costs are covered by financial partners of Biochartrust or private donations (separate from the sponsoring system) which can be made through this website.