UX, UI, Brand Design, and Frontend for a Global Rainforest Protection NGO

We cooperated directly with the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, supporting their organisation through consulting and promoting their REDD.plus platform. We built the landing page, prepared the UX, UI and branding design, assisted the CfRN in the production of the website’s content, and provided frontend development services.

Vast, healthy rainforests could go a long way towards protecting us all from climate change. In a time when the Amazon rainforests are destroyed to make room for agriculture and human expansion, we need to remember the importance of these habitats.

The Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN) is an intergovernmental organisation that works with countries with tropical forest territory, helping them balance sustainability and biodiversity with healthy economic growth. Netguru participated in establishing the online presence for their REDD+ project.

Reversing the destruction of tropical rainforests

The CfRN manages three main initiatives to protect global rainforests. One of them is carbon accounting, which uses National Greenhouse Gas Inventories to track a country’s total emissions and how much CO2 is absorbed by the country’s forests. This shows governments the impact of their policies and offers insight on how much still needs to be done. To do this effectively, technological support is crucial.

The CfRN helps rainforest nations complete their National GHG Inventory submissions according to the IPCC’s guidelines. The RRR+ initiative (Reporting for Results-Based REDD+) builds capacity for inventories and supports accurate reporting. Belize, Panama, Papua New Guinea, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are examples of countries that use this system.

REDD+ stands for “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries”.

It’s an initiative that rewards reduction or removal of greenhouse gas emissions through forest management. To support countries in covering the up-front costs of actions necessary to achieve these results, the REDD+ Catalytic Fund was established.

RRUs (removal units) are a standard for measuring greenhouse gas reduction, allowance or offset. Through the aforementioned systems, the carbon stored in forests has a financial value assigned to it - investing in sustainable development, conservation, and improving forest carbon stocks becomes profitable for developing countries.

The REDD.plus registry offers ownership and lifecycle tracking for REDD+ results (reductions and removals in emissions). It’s the first marketplace available to legal and corporate entities where they can reserve and purchase carbon credits. REDD.plus is transparent, offering insight into all CfRN member parties’ credit amounts.

REDD+ is an initiative that rewards reduction or removal of greenhouse gas emissions through forest management.

The story

The Coalition for Rainforest Nations launched the UN’s REDD+ mechanism in 2005. Today, it’s applied to 90% of rainforests globally. The CfRN continues to assist its members in developing policies and tools aimed at achieving sustainability for both forested land and neighbouring agricultural endeavours.

The goals of the initiative are to:

• manage tropical rainforest areas to support climate stability, biodiversity, sustainable development, and to alleviate poverty;
• create effective, innovative financial tools in close partnership with governments, communities, and other relevant stakeholders;
• enable sustainable living at an improved standard for forest-dependent communities;
• set a precedent and enable similar solutions around the world.

The 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) made it clear that there is a divide between the scientific requirements for global sustainability and the actions being taken to achieve it. But the European Green New Deal promises to end emissions by 2050, and many countries, cities, businesses and coalitions made similar commitments.

During COP25 the CfRN organised a conference for world leaders and CEOs of major corporations, with the goal of promoting the REDD.plus platform and encouraging people to sign up. To achieve this, the CfRN needed a fully-fledged landing page.

Offering a main source of information about the REDD.plus project for legal entities, corporations and other interested parties was crucial in convincing them to sign up to the REDD+ mechanism.

The scope of a global sustainability project

Netguru’s collaboration with the CfRN included:

• building the landing page for the REDD.Plus platform, along with several country-specific pages and an FAQ;
• providing consultations on branding (research & analysis) and creating a consistent brand identity;
• UX, UI, design and frontend development;
• consultations on the website’s content;
• SEO consultations (building visibility on Google).

Challenges:

• From the beginning, the project was urgent, as everything had to be ready before a large conference. We had two weeks to complete our work, and during this time we had to support the CfRN in building the REDD.plus branding from scratch.
• Consistency and a clear message were very important for the project. The landing page is a major source of information about the REDD+ initiative. REDD.plus had to be a platform secure and trustworthy enough for legal and corporate entities to sign up to the initiative.

Delivering an online platform to protect rainforests

Throughout the project, we supported the CfRN in their goals.

• The landing page was complete and ready before the UN COP25 Summit.
• The content we have helped create provides the most crucial messaging and serves as a comprehensive source of knowledge for everybody interested in joining REDD.plus.
• We have supported the CfRN in building visibility and recognition for the REDD+ initiative.

We’re proud that Netguru’s team could contribute to a milestone achievement in scaling up the fight to limit carbon emissions, reduce deforestation, and promote the protection and sustainable management of rainforests around the world.