An Alipay+GCash user tells her story of planting trees, from the deserts in Qinghai to the watershed of Ipo
By: Ant Group
Tags: Philippines, Technology, Alipay, Tech For Good, Environment

An Alipay+GCash user tells her story of planting trees, from the deserts in Qinghai to the watershed of Ipo Ant Group Follow Jul 10, 2019 · 4 min read

Part of the “Alipay and the World” series on our global partnerships, from local e-wallets in Asia to helping tourists pay with Alipay from Europe to the Americas

Editor’s note: Our guest writer this week is Joahnna Esquivias from the Philippines, who’s now studying at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. She’s an avid user of Alipay Ant Forest, as well as the Philippines’ GCash Forest, which was launched in July.

Joahnna with a friend in Manila during the launch of GCash Forest

My name is Joahnna, and I’m a GCash and Alipay e-wallet user who has been enjoying planting trees on my mobile phone for the past two years.

I used to travel around by car a lot, rarely stopping to consider how much carbon emissions my actions were generating in the process. I’ve always thought about how planting trees could be a good way to protect the environment, to offset all the carbon that I’m adding to the world.

But due to my intense daily study and work schedule, it was not easy to keep up with this aspiration. And to be honest, I’m no expert on what’s the best place to plant a tree, and what kinds of trees are most suitable to protect our environment in an efficient way.

Living a cashless life in Hangzhou, a city where Alibaba is headquartered and where I currently study, I signed myself up for a green initiative called Alipay Ant Forest. I started to accumulate virtual energy linked with low carbon activities in my daily life.

These low carbon activities that count as green energy include going to school or work by foot or bicycle, instead of by car; and paying my bills online instead of offline. With enough energy points, the green initiative platform rewards me with a real tree planted in a desertified area.

This digitalized philanthropy is fun. As a result, I now walk more, take buses, subways and bikes. I’m now living a healthier life that in effect is also great for the environment.

Caragana bush. Image: ITHome.com

On June 20 this year, I planted my very first tree — a Caragana bush in the desert of Qinghai, in northwest China. I’m so happy that I have planted a tree out of my low carbon behaviour, first virtually on my mobile phone and then physically in a desertified areas. The feeling of owning a tree in a remote arid land can feel just like if I owned a star in the universe.

It is true that trees and forests may have borders, but human’s willingness and intention to do good for the society does not. Neither is the benefit trees bring to our planet limited by borders.

Living in China, I know how severe its deforestation problem is. Back in my hometown in the Philippines, I was surprised to learn how deforestation is also worsening.

My country is losing approximately 47,000 hectares of forest cover every year, according to the data provided by the Forest Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. We’ve wiped out around 80% of forests in the Philippines.

The challenge to protect our environment is daunting, but the opportunity and potential to make a difference is encouraging.

I am so excited to see GCash start to leverage its digital technologies to enable ordinary people to join the fight against deforestation in the Philippines in an innovative way.

And I’m really excited to join GCash’s initiative to plant 365,000 trees in 365 days, together with other users and NGO partners like WWF, in the Ipo Watershed, a vital link in the Angat-Umiray-Ipo watersheds system which supplies around 98% of the water needs of Metro Manila.

I believe, in this mobile era, digital technologies have great potential to enable ordinary people like me to better contribute to environmental protection, especially the fight against deforestation and climate change.

To me, using GCash is not just a choice of payment method, but it is a choice of lifestyle, a mobile and green lifestyle that I am proud to live and happy to share with more friends. For a greener Philippines, let’s act now.

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