Making
Farm Biodiversity Investable
How dynamic Biodiversity Tokens will create a new financial instrument to restore Biodiversity in agriculture
- Systems Thinking approach
- Decentralized and open technology
- Revolutionary land-use system
- Fast on-the-ground impact
- Including smallholders as well as big operations
Biodiversity is the foundation of all life
Syntropic Farming is based on this understanding, so at recelio we have naturally been into it since we started our own regenerative journey.
In 2021 we participated in workshops, events and pitches, for example the “Weleda Living Soil Journey” and were among the finalists at the “Mondelez Biodiversity Challenge” and got to learn more about the Corporate and Supply-Chain perspective.
Then, in the beginning of 2022, we had a couple of meetings with Impact Investors.
We heard that Investors were desperately searching for ways to invest into biodiversity, after realizing that this is what is critical for the survival of us humans on this planet.
They “could not find anything“, which was kind of disturbing to them. They had access to all the money but no way to deploy it.
We were in a dilemma: We had experience and a good profile and were complimented for “such a great nature-based solution” (a term that we did not like that much, as we do not believe in the classic “problem – solution” model) but we simply had no “product” to market.
And even if, how big would the systemic impact be?
- How to quickly bring these monies to the ground where they can have real impact?
- How to direct it to the farmers and Landstewards which can be the drivers and heroes of regeneration and biodiversity without any “trickle-down” nonsense?
- How to include the smallholders and indigeneous?
- With a local lens and place as a starting point?
We had looked into technological approaches for this quest before.
We had evaluated centralized platforms as well as blockchain and cryptocurrency concepts and we saw potential in the latter, but some of the main missing points like “uniqueness” (or non-fungibility) and “dynamic-over-time” made us hesitate.
It was not fitting.
That changed dramatically in Spring 2022 when we learned about the development of dynamic Non-Fungible Tokens on the Polygon Blockchain.
A project that we had been following because of their relatively low energy consumption and network fees and a very positive experience with their support team during our network tests.
We deeply appreciate what you came up with, Polygon blockchain team and everybody who was involved in the development of this invention, thank you!
Suddenly it all made sense:
- For the first time we could not only tokenize a natural system or “asset” but also display its development over time.
- We could integrate feedback-loops and change structure.
- We could enable the emergence of a network of relationships.
- And with the help of an integrated oracle solution such as Chainlink (LINK) on Polygon we are able to bring real-world data into the system.
This can be anything from weather to satellite imagery or any type of ioT data, as well as other qualitative aspects, which then can be used to map, plan, model and analyze. - Everything being as decentralized, open and transparent as possible, so it can not only be used by the farmers and landstewards, but communities, governments, corporations and literally any other stakeholder as service providers, investors, philanthropists, retailers and individuals.
We rolled up our sleeves.
Why is Biodiversity so important?
The short answer to this is: Everything depends on Biodiversity.
Your Business depends 100% on Biodiversity.
Biodiversity is the Operating System of nature.
And as your laptop’s or phone’s operating system requires updates, so does Biodiversity on the planet – it is in constant development and improvement: in short, it’s dynamic.
It provides the building blocks and evolutionary options that we need to live.
If we lose Biodiversity (and we are rapidly doing so) we lose the conditions to survive on this planet.
And we are not speaking only about Whales and Rhinos.
We speak about all living beings, including Microbes, Fungi, plants, insects, even whole ecosystems and the genetic pool.
We acknowledge the importance of Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration and can not stress enough how crucial it is to prevent Biodiversity Loss.
Coming from the background of Syntropic Farming we concentrate on a different field though, and that is Agro-Biodiversity, so the purposeful integration of diverse crops (of different varieties) and wild species adapted to place (to create habitat and foster ecosystem services).
Why?
When we look at the land surface of our planet we see that Agriculture (50%) and Forests (37%) are the biggest land-use systems on this planet, so there is an enormous unused potential – and Syntropic Farming can make a great contribution to that.
Get a deeper understanding by reading our free PDF:
“Regenerating Nature’s Operating System: Why we should care about Biodiversity”
How to make Farm Biodiversity investable and create impact on the ground?
We have recently been invited to the “Climate Levers” Podcast, where we explained our background and visions not only for Biodiversity but also provided more details on the concept of dynamic Biodiversity Tokens.
If you have 90 minutes, then be our guest and watch the two episodes:
We are envisioning an ecosystem of entities that base their operations on a tokenverse, consisting of basically two elements on the blockchain:
- dynamic Land Steward Token (dLT)
The dLT functions as a personal ID within the Token Ecosystem and is non-negotiable. It contains information (meta data) about the Landsteward and displays personal experience, relationships, connectivity, knowledge, activity and development over time. It provides pseudo-anonymity within the network and can internally be verified by governmental documents. It is connected and synced with their mined dynamic Biodiversity Tokens.
- dynamic Biodiversity Token (dBT)
The dBT is basically a representation of a plot of land with a unique name and geo-coordinates and is negotiable. It contains information (meta data) about the land and displays the development of (Agro-)Biodiversity and Regeneration of that land over time. It is connected and synced with the dynamic Landsteward Token that mined it and/or is actively stewarding the land.
Both Tokens (dLT and dBT) are mined on the prime marketplace and can be stored in personal wallets.
dynamic Biodiversity Tokens can be traded on any other (secondary) NFT marketplace. Each time a dBT is resold, the connected Landsteward receives royalties.
dynamic Landsteward Tokens are non-negotiable and enable the setup of DAOs and SubDAOs, voting, discussions and participation.
They can as well be used for authentication on other platforms that operate in the Token ecosystem, such as planning and modeling services, capacity building and more.
Download our Backgrounder Whitepaper
Get a better understanding of the dBT/dLT Ecosystem by reading our Backgrounder (PDF):
“Making Biodiversity Investable with the dBT/dLT Ecosystem”
Unleashing the Potential of Blockchain for Biodiversity Regeneration and Nature-Positive Systemic Land Management (May 2023)
Who invests into dynamic Biodiversity Tokens?
dynamic Biodiversity Tokens can be used for a wide range of investment, they could even compliment or replace subsidies.
Let’s give you some examples.
Corporate Offsetting:
Corporations are (more and more) obliged to offset the destruction of nature that their operations cause. New regulatory frameworks are on the way and in 2023 and 2024 we are expecting an avalanche of new laws to protect Biodiversity.
If you can absolutely not avoid it and need to offset Biodiversity loss, then your interest is to build up a portfolio with dBTs that are in a state of high maturity. These Tokens represent places where Biodiversity is thriving.
Corporate Insetting:
Imagine you are a food producing/processing corporation and you have contracted farmers to deliver products to your supply-chain.
To raise Biodiversity within your supply-chain you can now incentivize the farmers to mine (a piece of their) virgin land as dBT and then buy the Tokens to deploy the necessary money for the transition. You can plan, model, monitor and analyse the results.
Impact Investing:
As and Impact investor you want to drive (nature-)positive change. You can now buy dBTs to invest exactly into that: positive impact on the ground. You will probably want to concentrate on virgin or relatively new systems, where your capital has the biggest leverage and impact.
To realize your gains you sell dBTs that have been developing greatly in your portfolio. By doing so, there will be royalties paid to the Landsteward, which means fresh capital for the on-the-ground maintenance and further improvement of the Biodiversity.
Philanthropists:
By applying a filter set on the dBTs on a market place you can pick the projects that you are keen on. You can specialize on specific regions, topics etc. You could be interested in mature Systems as much as in virgin systems to initiate positive change. You can collect, trade and thereby generate funds for reinvesting. Every time you buy or sell a Token the connected Landsteward is rewarded and can create positive impact on the ground.
Foundations:
Fulfill your mission and create meaningful stories by investing into the work of committed Landstewards that are working in the field of your interest. Filter the available Tokens on the marketplaces and find projects that fit your purpose to support them.
Governments:
dBTs can become a complementary or replacement for (agriculture/forestry/community) subsidies. Governments can raise investment efficiency by filtering the projects that fit their scope, make long-term investment into the right projects and reduce Biodiversity loss, social support and subsidies costs.
By using aggregated data on the blockchain they can monitor and analyze needs as much as development over time. This can be done for certain regions which brings in the possibility to not only support, research and develop projects on your territory but also to make comparisons and learn from other regions.
Retail and individuals:
Instead of buying a bored ape Token you can now collect and trade something that does not only look extremely well but creates Biodiversity in the real world.
There is so much more to explore and and explain. Let's talk!
Why is it special?
Measurement is a well known bottleneck of biodiversity assessments due to complexity and costs.
Investors seek evidence that by deploying their monies they create real, on-the-ground and lasting impact.
With the Syntropic Farming approach we work with (Bio-)Diversity by design.
Before we implement, we already know the amount of different species and their presence in the systems over time, the varieties used, the source of seeds and the position of the plants in the landscape.
From this point on extended Biodiversity evolves.
Thanks to the transition funding from the first sale of the dBT, the Landstewards then start measuring and up-leveling Biodiversity.
By this process their dBTs gain in value and all data will be transparently displayed.
How it works on the ground
Get a better understanding of the basics by reading our free PDF:
“A short introduction to Syntropic Farming”
What is going to happen next?
We have just entered a 7-week Venture Building program from Brainforest in Autumn 2023 and will go into an acceleration phase afterwards.
Interested in (co-)investing? Contact us!