Blockchain can help to measure impact of reforestation efforts

Tree planting at Kaptagat forest, June 19, 2022. [Ivy Choge, Standard]

The world has put emphasis on global warming as its ravaging effects become evident by the day. Weather patterns are becoming difficult to predict occasioned by destructive floods and prolonged droughts.

The Earth is becoming warmer and the sea is rising. Governments and private entities have shown the will to combat global warming but more than often the set targets are not met, pointing to gaps in the green initiatives implemented.

In 2015, up to 194 countries entered into a legally binding agreement in Paris to cut down on their carbon footprint to limit the world temperatures at 1.5C or below similar to the pre-industrial period. This is with the aim of preventing the unbearable effects of climate change if the temperatures keep on rising. Nature-based solutions play a critical role in combating climate change and could provide around 30 per cent of the cost-effective mitigation that is needed by 2030 to stabilise the warming.

As the world meets on African soil for COP27, two key facts should not be lost on us. The first is that most developed economies historically owe their high-income success to the environmental degradation of Africa. This is why the continent is now urging the established economies to set up refund programmes to allow African governments to invest in the restoration and regeneration of their natural resources. The second fact is that the USD100 billion climate finance commitment by the high-income countries is yet to be realised.

In the event Egypt is a success, and all kinds of urgent interventions accelerate the availability of the climate finance commitment, African governments will still need to address the little, big matter of governance shortfall.

As an architect who no longer has to build, I have spent my last decade studying our built environment, looking at the degradation evidence and the restoration efforts and three things are true. The first is that the public-private sector collaboration is steadfast.

The second is that within all the efforts, most of the initiatives deliver negligible impact. The third factor could either be due to insufficient monitoring, reporting, and verification efforts, or simply put, the absence of the projects. The latter would mean that there is no impact to verify, report on or even monitor.

I have been in conversation with funding entities whose biggest headache is the priorities of the executing partners. Their deduction is that at the end of a tree planting project, the executing partner would have more vehicles and media coverage than planted trees to show.

This is a big concern for Africa. Even as we rightly agitate for compensation for loss and damage, our governance shortfall precedes us.

However, there is no better time to take advantage of blockchain technology than now. Our vision is to connect every tree planter to the tree they planted using smart contract technology then introducing an incentive programme that allows the planter to derive some value from their efforts for every month that the tree thrives in the ground. Smart contracts are coded as a ledger transaction or protocols that executes contract terms and run with the support of blockchain technology.

This approach ticks three key boxes: One, we move the needle from tree planting to tree growing. Two, we democratise the involvement by introducing a skin-in-the-game approach to reforestation at large scale. The smart contract model promotes equity and virtue to all ecological stewards and addresses the current monopoly enjoyed by select execution partners whose priorities do not speak to impact. Lastly, when the trees survive the delicate stage, we will then have an impact to monitor, report and verify.

From our studies, conservation and restoration with a cultural regeneration void is an uphill task. Our approach to this has be to co-habit co-create co-design the cultural practices of the communities we intend to roll out programmes to understand their priorities. This informs the choice of tree species and event incentive programmes that we roll out. Our Human Centred Design partners have been hard at work to crack these, going back to 50 years ago when the environment was nice and dandy.

Why do we put all our efforts into this? Ours is very simple. An analysis conducted by the Nature Conservancy and World Resource Centre in 2017 estimated that stopping deforestation, restoring forests, and improving forestry practices could cost-effectively remove seven billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide annually - similar to eliminating all emissions from cars today.

The use of smart contracts aims to help parties transition from tree planting mindset to tree growing, making sure trees serve the carbon-capture role. They automate incentive systems that can reward individuals, private and government entities directly for engaging in sustainable initiatives like carbon offsetting. The contracts are instrumental in encouraging participation in green projects combating climate change in the process.

The future of smart contracts in combating climate change is promising even as the carbon credit market grows. It has been hard for companies to offset the same amount of carbon from the air as they put into it, necessitating many of them to resort to using carbon credits. The Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets in partnership with McKinsey, estimates that the market for carbon credits could be worth upward of $50 billion in 2030. In this light, if an individual starts a reforestation project, the smart contract will pay the person a tokenised carbon credit, which could be sold to the companies for making a green impact.

Other than transacting on the carbon credit market, smart contracts through blockchain technology offers a transparent ledger that effectively tracks donations made towards green initiatives by watchdog groups and governments, eliminating inefficiency and lack of accountability.