Restore a mangrove ecosystem with your card payments

For every CHF 100 spent using your radicant card, whether it's online or in-store, we're proud to contribute together to the restoration of 1 square meter of precious ecosystem in Kenya.

Now, let's dive into some payment know-how: Whenever you make a card payment, whether online or at a physical store, the store owner pays a small fee to the bank that issued your card, known as interchange fee. Many banks see these fees as a source of profit, but at radicant, we have a different approach. We've chosen to reinvest a part of the profit into sustainability projects, like the reforestation project in Kenya.

And that's not all! radicant also multiplies your impact. We top up our profit, so that together we can finance 1 square meter of mangrove forest for every CHF 100 you spend with your card.

No, and that’s the best part: it's completely free for you. The magic is that every time you use your radicant card, you're not just making a payment – you're making a positive impact!

We work in collaboration with Climate Partner and a community-based environmental organization called Brain Youth Group (BYG), founded in Mombasa County, Kenya, in 2011. It currently comprises more than 35 local community members, primarily women.

The primary goal of BYG is to contribute to sustainable development initiatives within the local community through environmental restoration and livelihood generation, with a particular focus on restoring the Tudor Creek mangrove forests in Mombasa.

Planting trees and reforesting are key actions in the fight against climate change. However, the action of planting is not enough. The trees need continuous attention and treatment to ensure they can effectively grow. Our partner Climate Partner works with GreenCEO Solutions, a youth-led social enterprise founded in Kenya in 2020 with team of environmental auditing and monitoring experts. The team will be conducting periodic assessments on the integrity and performance of the planting and maintenance activities for a duration of three years, to ensure that the restoration activities are aligned with our goal to restore the degraded mangrove forests of Tudor Creek. They will be establishing sample plots as well use geo-tools extensively to provide accurate estimation on mortality and seedlings growth.

Furthermore, they will be conducting training sessions with Brain Youth Group (the organisation taking care of the mangrove planting) to support their skills and know-how on conventional mangrove monitoring and maintenance practices. These knowledge-transfer sessions have proven to be helpful in improving planting techniques, increasing survival rates, and reducing plant mortality.

Mangrove trees are not simple trees. Not only do they efficiently absorb significant amounts of CO2, they also offer a welcoming habitat for wildlife, act as natural barriers against coastal flooding, and bring about substantial economic benefits to the local communities.

The Tudor Creek coastal region used to cover more than 1’600 hectares of mangroves forest in the past. The high demand for firewood has resulted in deforestation, reducing the forest to only a few 100 hectares. Just to give you an idea, this deforestation is equivalent to the size of 3’000 football fields...

In cooperation with Climate Partner and a local organization called Brain Youth Group, we support local communities in the reforestation of the Tudor Creek region which concretely means that they plant new mangrove trees in areas previously deforested.

Next to the restoration of vital ecosystems, they also address issues of poverty, unemployment, and malnutrition by developing livelihood opportunities for the local community, including beekeeping, fish farming, chicken rearing, and other sustainable livelihood practices. These initiatives are designed to create sources of income and employment for community members, thereby reducing poverty and unemployment in Mombasa County.

Mangroves are coastal trees that thrive in tropical regions near the equator.
They are important for four main reasons:

• Biodiversity – they offer a welcoming habitat for numerous marine species, like fish and shrimp, who use mangroves as nurseries during their early life stages. Mammals, insects and birds find protection and nourishment in the mangrove forests too.
• High carbon absorption – Mangroves have the superpower of capturing 10-20 times more greenhouse gases than other tropical rainforests.
• Coast protection – Mangroves protect the coast from the impact of floodings and rising sea levels.
• Economic impact – Mangroves supply honey, fruit, seaweed, salt, leaves and local sea creatures. When managed sustainably, they provide essential livelihood opportunities for many coastal inhabitants.

Using this reference, 23.1 tons of CO2 per hectare per year is sequestered for the first 20 years for restored mangrove trees, which is therefore equivalent to 1 m2 = 2.3 kg CO2 absorbed per year.