1001 Smart Cities

Permanent project revision

Freetown the Treetown Mobile Token System

Revision 2026-08-27-claims-and-sources · effective 2026-08-02

Superseded. A later revision exists: 2026-08-27-source-dating →

unreviewed

Created the first structured Evidence Passport with 9 claims and 5 source dossiers.

sha256:fcac9a892ee5d777bfc503c7cc8160136669ffcc3c1a2b6b2e796f6d7b34e83a
All revisions → Current entity page →

Change set

  • add /evidencePassport — Added claim-level evidence mapping and source dossiers.
  • add /revisionHistory — Established a permanent, hash-addressed baseline revision.
9
of 9 claims mapped
5
source dossiers
2
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Claims, one by one

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-d3b3426eb1ce4680 quantitative
Freetown lost about 70% of its tree cover to unplanned development
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Earthshot Prize finalist page states that seventy percent of Freetown's trees have been cut down amid rapid population growth and urban development.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Earthshot Prize (recognition)
Claim 2 clm-61984bcb9962d285 quantitative
a 2017 landslide on the deforested peninsula killed about 1,100 people
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The February 2025 article states that deforestation of Freetown's mountains for wood, charcoal and housing led to a landslide in 2017 that killed 1,100 people and left at least 3,000 homeless.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Conversation — why Freetown's celebrated tree planting scheme won't work for other African cities, or the planet
Claim 3 clm-2da9db86748c5bfc quantitative
Since 2020 the city has paid community growers, largely women and young people, through Greenstand's TreeTracker app: each sapling is geotagged and photographed as it grows, and payments arrive quarterly as tokens that can be exchanged for cash
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The 2025 article describes the TreeTracker app, growers tagging each tree's location and tracking growth with photographs, and quarterly payments from the city administration in tokens exchangeable for cash, with growers largely women and young people; the Earthshot page describes residents paid to plant and monitor trees tracked on an online platform.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Conversation — why Freetown's celebrated tree planting scheme won't work for other African cities, or the planet
  2. Earthshot Prize (recognition)
Claim 4 clm-8da838521e0a70bb quantitative
More than a million trees have been planted, against a target of five million by 2030 and twenty million by 2050
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The 2025 article states more than a million trees have been planted since 2020, with plans for another 5 million by 2030 and 20 million more by 2050; the UN interview page states the initiative aims to plant five million trees by 2030.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Conversation — why Freetown's celebrated tree planting scheme won't work for other African cities, or the planet
  2. United Nations Climate Action — Freetown: planting five million trees by 2030
Claim 5 clm-9e52d3ac2438ceb9 quantitative
the project has taken almost US$3 million since 2020, largely from the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility, and is supposed to start covering its own costs by selling carbon-offset tokens
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The 2025 article states the project has received almost US$3 million since 2020, largely from the World Bank and the Global Environmental Facility, and that it is supposed to start covering its own costs through selling carbon offset tokens.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Conversation — why Freetown's celebrated tree planting scheme won't work for other African cities, or the planet
Claim 6 clm-a07f4b54e463fd59 quantitative
More than a million trees planted since 2020 with a reported survival rate of over 80%, which the city and the Earthshot Prize both attribute to the community of growers rather than to the app
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Earthshot page credits the city's tree guardians and the tracking platform with a survival rate of over 80%; the 2025 article states the project has achieved a high tree survival rate of over 80% thanks to this community.
Caveat
A project self-report repeated by a prize body and by a researcher; no source describes how survival is audited.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Earthshot Prize (recognition)
  2. The Conversation — why Freetown's celebrated tree planting scheme won't work for other African cities, or the planet
Claim 7 clm-665efecbc1c387c3 descriptive
no source describes how survival is audited
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
None of the three sources explains how the survival rate is checked — whether by sampling, by revisit photographs, or by the growers themselves.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Earthshot Prize (recognition)
  2. The Conversation — why Freetown's celebrated tree planting scheme won't work for other African cities, or the planet
  3. Freetown City Council — Freetown The Treetown (authority)
Claim 8 clm-5b8e42aae49c7581 quantitative
the 'highly replicable' framing has been challenged — a researcher writing in 2025 argues the scheme rests on Freetown's particular history and community structures
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The February 2025 article is written against the C40 network's description of the scheme as a highly replicable solution for urban Africa, and argues from the author's research into Freetown's colonial history and community structures that it will not transfer.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Conversation — why Freetown's celebrated tree planting scheme won't work for other African cities, or the planet
  2. C40 Knowledge Hub (research)
Claim 9 clm-5beeb946bbf393a4 descriptive
the intended replacement is carbon-offset tokens, which work by letting a buyer elsewhere claim the reduction
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The article explains that buyers purchase the tokens to cancel out their own emissions, giving the example of a US airline claiming a reduction by buying tokens from the scheme.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Conversation — why Freetown's celebrated tree planting scheme won't work for other African cities, or the planet

Source dossiers and revision state

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-27-claims-and-sources effective 2026-08-02 · created 2026-08-27

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

Erratum on this revision's envelope. The snapshot, its hash and its permanent link are untouched.

  • createdAt previously read 2026-09-02T20:00:00Z. The batching script that produced this revision advanced createdAt into the future to satisfy the strictly-increasing order the validator requires per entity. The value never recorded a real event; the corrected value is the moment the revision provably existed in the repository. Corrected to 2026-08-27T03:51:38Z on 2026-08-27; evidence: first appears in commit 47fa7f19b8, committed 2026-08-27T03:51:38Z.
sha256:fcac9a892ee5d777bfc503c7cc8160136669ffcc3c1a2b6b2e796f6d7b34e83a
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
9
of 9 claims mapped
5
source dossiers
2
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Freetown City Council
Actor types
city-government
Funding model
mixed
Funding description
Not recorded
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

5 source dossiers

Freetown City Council — Freetown The Treetown (authority) fcc.gov.sl · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-a3c7e68853a06093
Publisher
Name not classified · fcc.gov.sl
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-02
Dossier created
2026-09-02
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The council page renders as a navigation shell to automated retrieval and carries no publication date.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
C40 Knowledge Hub (research) c40knowledgehub.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-571426dfcf6c7810
Publisher
Name not classified · c40knowledgehub.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-02
Dossier created
2026-09-02
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The C40 knowledge-hub article did not return a readable body to automated retrieval; it is the source of the "highly replicable" framing discussed in the lesson.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Earthshot Prize (recognition) earthshotprize.org · 4 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-c4e7e22317f94c3b
Publisher
Name not classified · earthshotprize.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2023-09-08
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-02
Dossier created
2026-09-02
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Further information on the project.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
The Conversation — why Freetown's celebrated tree planting scheme won't work for other African cities, or the planet theconversation.com · 8 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-0bd7a85bf1b2e1da
Publisher
Name not classified · theconversation.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-02-27
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-02
Dossier created
2026-09-02
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
No locator recordedDescriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
United Nations Climate Action — Freetown: planting five million trees by 2030 un.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-7f1f0be719ffef09
Publisher
Name not classified · un.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-02
Dossier created
2026-09-02
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

An interview page with the mayor that carries no publication date.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.