Blockchain and conservation: Why does it matter: Applications in payments for ecosystem services and bolsa floresta program

Abstract

Blockchain has created an innovative framework for safe, efficient and transparent chain of transactions, with the impressive rise of more than 2.100 cryptocurrencies traded anytime, worldwide. These transactions are registered on the web, with no central server, or proprietors. Blockchain also offers exchange and data solutions for businesses and society with tokenized currency, immutable data registry, smart contracts and funding sources. The Amazon region and forest conservation have a positive benefit from Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) models that reward landowners and users for keeping the standing forest, thus providing services for the climate and biodiversity. A Blockchain proposition addresses key difficulties for PES models, such as lack of trust, high transaction costs and distance among parties. In the Brazilian Amazon, Bolsa Floresta Program (Standing Forest Program) benefits nearly 9.500 families living in traditional riverine communities, rewarding them for their role as the tropical forest keepers. A Blockchain proposition for Bolsa Floresta indicates positive impacts for forest conservation. In project finance, it allows the alternative funding with cryptocoins, observed possible regulatory issues. In project activities, Blockchain provides platforms for a safe exchange of information, goods, and possibly, monetary values, among families and associations, thus improving the standing forest community model. The technical configurations for these proposals include Application Program Interface solutions with online and offline mobility among members. Overall, an analysis of key issues linked to a Blockchain proposition indicates a favourable deployment for pilot projects in the Amazon region, and likely, to conservation projects with forests and communities, worldwide.