Italo Calvino’s “The Baron in the Trees" (Il Barone rampante) takes place in the times of Voltaire when not only a lot of ideas were being discovered in the new age but also a lot of trees. In 1767, the 12-year-old Baron Cosimo Piavosco di Rondo refused to eat the snails he had been served at table and, in an Italian snit (nowadays we call it a temper tantrum), took to the trees. He spent the rest of his considerably long life up there!Seeing Ingo Frost up in a tree, talking about his vision of WikiWoods, he reminds me quite strongly of Cosimo, who talked to the people that climbed up to him.

Ingo Frost in a treeIngo is convinced that his and his friends’ new initiative will be the incentive for Berliners to take a stance for the forests that surround the three million strong capital of Germany. “We combat climate change by planting the trees that bind the CO2 from the atmosphere”, he says. Especially in urban surroundings, the a slow yet sustainable reduction of CO2 emissions will have an impact in many years to come. Just as Baron Cosimo found an infinite number of trees in his park, so the WikiWoods community has established a virtual garden paradise of the same kind. Ingo and his friends will host “tree giving” in Berlin and will invite others to do the same all over the planet. The philosophy of WikiWoods is to act locally and to get together virtually by exchanging experiences and thoughts about the tree planting projects. By collaboratively expanding and contributing, WikiWoods will grow in the same way as Wikipedia has (the online encyclopedia where the name is borrowed from).The interview that follows is a result of our friendly tree-chat.
How did you come up with the idea for WikiWoods?The Internet is the perfect medium to bring people together and to enable self organization. That's what I learned from Wikipedia. But the activities of volunteers are not limited to the Internet: You can initialize cooperation to solve real world problems, such as climate change.How is WikiWoods going to work?WikiWoods will be an international platform to bring the different groups together to rebuild natural and sustainable forests - volunteers who plant the trees, experts who help with their knowledge and experience and of course partners who support us with money.Are there not enough offsetting programs that are quite similar to WikiWoods? What is your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) anyway?Our USP is: We use the Internet because we know there are enough people who are willing to do something against climate change. We can reach them and bring them together, so that they have everything to build their own projects within WikiWoods. We are open for any co-operation with existing initiatives and organizations.Are the people in Berlin receptive to sustainability issues?It's amazing how many people react positively when I talk about WikiWoods and it is even more fascinating to see how many people are working already voluntarily with these issues.If someone flies a lot during the year – can he buy trees at WikiWoods or is it just for organizations and institutions?We don't actually sell certificates like Atmosfair. We just rebuild natural resources that assist in the carbon conditions for the public.How do you select the places you plant trees? Do you guys have any partners in industry or politics?

We want to ensure sustainability by special mechanisms: At the beginning we buy the places together with environmental organizations that can ensure that the forest is protected. At the moment we do not yet have any big partners in industry or politics.