How corporations, community organizations, and a fintech app are coming together in the Philippines to restore forests and empower local communities

Since 1900, the Philippines has lost nearly two-thirds of its forests, shrinking its forest cover from 21 million hectares to just seven million in the 2010s. Despite existing illegal logging bans, the Philippines loses an estimated 52,000 trees daily due to deforestation, land conversion, and agricultural activities. This, in turn, has led to increased soil erosion, flooding, river siltation, droughts, and biodiversity losses.

In response to this growing crisis, GCash, the Philippines’ leading digital finance app and largest cashless ecosystem, launched GForest, an in-app platform that enables users to contribute to various environmental initiatives with just a few taps on their phones. To date, the GForest eco-movement, its planting partners, and the 24 million GForest users it calls Green Heroes have planted 4 million trees.

This milestone has helped advance the ecological and socioeconomic impact of reforestation and agroforestry projects carried out in partnership with like-minded advocates like the ABS-CBN Foundation, Culion Foundation, Friends of Hope, Inc., the Philippine Coffee Board, Inc. (PCBI), Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI), Silliman University, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The United Nations Development Programme’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) was one of the first partners to support GCash in creating GForest in 2019. BIOFIN also connected WWF-Philippines and GCash to launch their first tree-planting project to restore the Ipo Watershed, which supplies water to most of Metro Manila.

How Does GForest Work?

With GForest, GCash aims to embed environmental stewardship into everyday decisions seamlessly. A key facet of the GForest initiative is how it enables GCash users to plant virtual trees by converting “green energy points” that they earn from in-app digital transactions (such as paying bills, sending money, or buying mobile credits). For every virtual tree planted in-app, actual, corresponding native and indigenous trees are planted by environmental partners and tree-planting organizations in key areas across the country. 

Users get to choose which trees to plant, which organization to support, and which communities to empower—whether in watersheds, coastal zones, or agroforestry areas—and thus create a direct, tangible impact on critical reforestation and agroforestry efforts.

Each tree option and every planting site adheres to a science-based approach, ensuring the efficacy of environmental action and high survivability rates for seedlings. This approach is informed by consultations with partners such as UNDP BIOFIN and on-the-ground organizations, as well as host communities.

GForest, a feature of GCash mobile wallet, has gained more than 23 million users since its launch in 2019.

Real Trees, Real Impact

24 million users have joined GForest, making it one of the Philippines’ largest science-based digital environmental movements. To date, GForest’s Green Heroes have helped plant over 4 million actual trees, each responding to specific environmental and socioeconomic needs across 14,300 hectares of land—from a diverse range of mangrove species to protect coastal zones, to forest cover in biodiverse habitats, to fruit-bearing trees such as coffee, cacao, and avocado to help smallholder farmers.

The success of GForest in agroforestry and reforestation in the Philippines is a testament to its science-based planting approach and its socioeconomic impact on partner communities. The initiative boasts a remarkable 90% survival rate, due largely to the multistakeholder efforts GForest employs. GForest maintains close collaboration with experts and on-site partners to ensure that trees are carefully matched to their ideal planting locations and environments, and the seedlings undergo growth in nurseries before deployment. 

What distinguishes this initiative is its human-centered, community-building design. It places local communities, such as women’s groups and people’s organizations, at the heart of implementation, transforming them from passive beneficiaries into active environmental stewards with sustainable livelihood opportunities. 

GForest does more than plant trees — it empowers farmers to care for the land and manage their finances. Photo: GCash

More than 11,300 farmers nationwide and their families have earned additional income through tree-planting work led by GForest. GCash also supports local farmers not just by boosting their incomes through tree-planting, but by empowering them through farm design, planting workshops, and financial literacy training.

“Through GForest, we’re turning small digital actions into lasting environmental and social impact. It shows how fintech can be a powerful force for good,” says CJ Alegre, Head of Sustainability at GCash. “The success of GForest lies in collective action—millions of users, credible partners, and shared purpose all working together to regenerate our forests and support local communities,” he added. 
Under this banner, GForest also complements the Philippine government’s Enhanced National Greening Program (ENGP), a key initiative aimed at reducing poverty by helping communities build social enterprises, while promoting environmental stability and biodiversity conservation.

Moreover, by leveraging digital platforms for environmental financing, GForest represents a scalable model for nature-based solutions—mobilizing public participation and private sector innovation to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

What’s Next?

GForest continues to grow, expanding its reach to more communities and ecosystems in need of restoration and protection. With support from BIOFIN, planting partners, and fellow environmental advocates, reforestation and agroforestry efforts are anchoring their focus on three primary objectives: Watershed protection, coastal protection, and sustainable livelihood for local communities.

Given the ubiquity of GCash in the Philippines—charting millions of users—the app is in the prime position of leveraging its massive reach, its status as a staple in Filipinos' everyday lives, and its investments in innovation to further environmental goals and amplify positive social impact. GForest, as both an in-app feature and a digital eco movement, best exemplifies the value of opening pathways to participation in pursuit of shared causes.

Even small actions, when multiplied by millions, can bring forests back to life.

Learn more and download the app: https://new.gcash.com/services/gforest

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6bPb2ySd3Y