He promised a billion trees to save koalas. It’s just going to ‘take a while’

A businessman who pledged to plant a billion trees to save koalas has left a string of puzzled customers in his wake, including a Swiss-Australian luxury watchmaker, an eco-friendly deodorant entrepreneur, and a team of face painters at the Royal Easter Show.

Mathew Manson’s business Habitat Sanctuaries launched the tree planting campaign in 2020 and began seeking money from companies that wanted to enhance their image and do something about climate change.

Mathew Manson the Royal Easter Show this year, with pet dingo Buddy.Credit: Rhett Wyman

“I’ve got zero hesitation that we’re going to succeed in the billion trees campaign,” Manson said on a Facebook video about the launch in 2020.

His business was different from other carbon offset operations because it involved direct donations from product sales, Manson said, allowing companies to tell their customers that every dollar spent was helping to save koalas and the planet.

“We’re not here to greenwash a company, so if a company has unethical methods or practices or products we’re not interested,” he said at the time.

But questions were soon being asked about how realistic Manson’s grand plans were – a billion trees would be the equivalent of every person in NSW planting and maintaining 122 new trees each – and businesses were wondering how the money they were donating was being translated into verifiable carbon offsets.

Manson told the Herald that efforts were ongoing to register the tree planting operation near Kyogle in northern NSW so it could generate carbon credits. “I’m a one-man show, it takes a while,” he said.

Most large-scale carbon offset operations are registered with the Australian Clean Energy Regulator, though some companies do offer unregistered offsets. The regulator said Habitat Sanctuaries is not registered as a provider of carbon offsets.

“We gave him office space in return for planting the equivalent value in trees,” said Christophe Hoppe, founder of luxury watchmaker Bausele. The watchmaker agreed that a forest of 19,000 trees would be planted but is yet to see any proof that Habitat Sanctuaries has done so.

Christophe Hoppe, founder of Bausele watches, said Manson “talked a lot and then disappeared for a long time”.

“He sent emails updating on the planting but no certificates or verification,” said Hoppe. “He was always promising to work on the actual offset brought by Bausele but nothing eventuated. He talked a lot and then disappeared for a long time. He eventually got all his things out of the office when we moved.”

Another company, eco-friendly deodorant and balm seller Natural Approach, signed a deal to donate money from product sales to Habitat Sanctuaries in return for tree planting.

Founder Tracey Hickmott said she was donating money based on a proportion of sales receipts and Manson would respond with updates about his tree planting progress.

“Then I just stopped hearing from him,” said Hickmott, who won an AusMumpreneur award for her online business.

Though there is no suggestion the trees do not exist, Hickmott said Habitat Sanctuaries is yet to confirm the trees have actually been planted in return for the donations.

Habitat Sanctuaries held an exhibition at the Royal Easter Show earlier this year and Manson attended with Buddy, a pet dingo that he said had undergone 6000 hours of training to detect injured wildlife and rescue them after bushfires.

“It’s like walking a tiger – he’s great around kids, but you wouldn’t put a dog or a cat near him,” Manson said.

But trouble was brewing among staff hired by Manson for the event, including a face-painting crew who had spent days painting animal masks on children without being paid.

“We just stopped hearing from him,” said unpaid face painter Paula Diaz. “My message for him would be to give us an answer or pay us.”

Manson agreed he had left unpaid bills behind at the event and said he had stopped responding to calls from aggrieved workers because of ill-health.

“We lost a lot of money at the Easter Show, a lot of money,” he said. “I’m working through it.”

NSW Fair Trading confirmed it had received a complaint about Manson in relation to unpaid wages at the Royal Easter Show and was investigating.

Habitat Sanctuaries also lists supermarket chain IGA as a partner on its website.

Manson told the Herald Habitat Sanctuaries had been paid by an IGA store in the inner west suburb of Enmore to plant trees on its behalf. He said he would provide paperwork as evidence of the deal but didn’t do so.

Staff at the store were unaware of a deal with Habitat Sanctuaries and a spokesman for IGA’s parent company Metcash said: “We have no partnership with them whatsoever.”

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