Business benefits
The Savimbo Project leverages emerging technologies to solve previously intractable problems.
Buyers
Market stability. Carbon-offsets are not created equal. We connect the right buyers with the right sellers. With US-based scientific standards we craft our credits to withstand market fluctuations from tightening reporting standards, meaning our credits will have value on secondary markets long after they are purchased.
Influence. Token holders benefit from the ability to transact sustainably in the market, resell carbon-offsets in rapidly appreciating secondary markets, participate in governance and development, and (if early holders) accrue launch rewards from the Savimbo treasury.
Rapid scaling. We're built to scale. Early buyers will be able to lock in access to our credits as they are delivered with priority buying priviledges. Expanding their access to legitimate credits, and transparently educating our buyers on the market risks of retired or scientifically invalid credits.
"The development of projects would have to ramp up at an unprecedented rate." — McKinsey A blueprint for scaling voluntary carbon markets, 2021
Sellers
Upscale markets. While we primarily sequester in tropical forests, our green-carbon credit sales are to institutional buyers who are more likely to transact through the US and Europe. International registries like Verra are the most scientifically reputable of carbon sequestration options, selling for the highest rates per ton. Sales are a different problem than sequestration and our US scientific background is vastly more likely to get fair international market pricing than an international one allowing us to eliminate middlemen brokers.
Ability to transact. We can incorporate sellers at any scale, but our product is specifically tailored to smallfarmers who are not currently able to participate directly in the market. We offer training and access to mobile, web, crypto, and drone technologies. We train farmers in silviculture, literacy, and conservation. And we enable organization of autonomous groups for political self-advocacy and collective buying power.
Scientists
We partner with independent scientists who can inform or report on all levels of our projects. We use lean research in our project design to continually apply public lessons-learned from the sequestration, reforestation, ecological, and economic carbon-offset science. Furthermore, we're committed to publishing open-science results from successful projects.
We follow the evidence-based 10 golden rules for reforestation, design elements which are continually reincorporated in every element of our project design.
Protect existing forest first. There are over 16,000 different tree species in the Amazon. While tree growth is fast in the Amazon, diversification of tree stands can take hundreds of years. We value forests over trees, because they are more effective carbon sinks. We prioritize old-growth and even established second-growth forest over reforestation. We rebalance all credits issued on the platform such that conservation Carbon credits are always paid out slightly higher than reforestation credits in the same zone to incentivize preservation and prevent leakage.
Work together. We prioritize smallfarmers and existing heterogenous community organizations as replanters, incorporate and train local techs and academics, and create forestry jobs from communally-held land DAOs. However we do cut out middlemen (brokers, exchanges, and external NGOs) wherever possible to reduce project costs and increase impact. We work directly with Indigenous groups because they have the longest-running and most successful track record of on-the-ground, modern successes in conserving tropical forests. This is a win-win proposition. Indigenous groups do more, with less money, have legal claim to much of the land being deforested, have excellent networking abilities, and they get the job done more effectively. Direct observation and hard science backs ecological and anthropological best-practices in this regard. Indigenous groups are the best partners
Aim to maximize biodiversity. We prize biodiversity and enable local tracking of wildlife to enhance payments for conservation over reforestation. We increase revenue for native medicinal plants, and local forest regrowth.
Select appropriate areas for reforestation. We only reforest on previously-forested zones, and prioritize jungle-adjacent lands. We only reforest when land rights are clear and undisputed by all parties. In desert plantations we add breathable sand which aids in water conservation and tree survival.
Use natural regeneration wherever possible. Where natural regrowth is possible or occuring we add tracking to existing seedlings, clear weeds, plant in strips, and apply biochar and topsoil (when applicable) to enable forest regrowth.
Select species to maximize biodiversity. Our seedlings include biota confirmed by local landowners and scientists to be native noninvasive species, with >5 species per plot, and each plot includes at least one food-bearing tree which can be harvested without sacrificing the tree, and one pioneer species for later thinning.
Use resilient plant material. We collect seedlings from native jungle, on a random GPS coordinate grid to prevent overharvest and maximize diversity.
Plan ahead for infrastructure, capacity and seed supply. In large planting zones we create our own tree nurseries, recruit and train local agriculture tech on cultivation of desirable plants, and establish industry-grade seed-storage banks.
Learn by doing. We are pragmatists with no foregone conclusions as to what works in each new zone. We equally value scientific and Indigenous knowledge and take care to record and preserve traditional intelligence in a form that is desirable to our local partners.
Make it pay. We utilize nonprofit revenue to increase seller access but our growth is driven by positive revenue for all stakeholders. We also partner with ethnobotanists and ecotourism agencies to encourage increased revenue from conservation and study of rare and endangered botanical species in native forests.
Government
Politically agnostic. We're politically agnostic, and will work anywhere in the world where farmers and governing bodies are willing to transact transparently, within our scientific protocols.
Colombia: Our pilot launch is in Columbia where a newly-elected leftist leader has campaigned on a platform of ecological reform.
Latin America: We are negotiating partnerships in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Mexico.
Tropical forests: We have sellers ready to go in Tanzania, Somalia, and Uganda.
Desert planting: We have desert planters using breathable sand (80% water conservation) who are ready to go in UAE, India, and China.
Efficient sequestration. As an international collaboration with a long history of successful Indigenous partnerships, we can offer reduced prices and more effective capture from internationally-based sequestration with fair-trade local partners in tropical forests in the Amazonian basin, Asia, and Africa. Our pilot is in the Colombian Amazon for the following reasons because the Amazon accounts for more than half the tropical rainforest on earth. It’s one of the planet's most important terrestrial carbon reserves, 72 million hectares containing about 123 billion tons of carbon above and below ground. The Amazon has acted as a carbon sink to moderate the effect of rising greenhouse gases, a capacity that deforestation significantly jeporadizes. Trees grown in the Amazon grow much faster than their American counterparts and can live for up to 300 years.
"Old-growth Amazonian forests play a fundamental role in the global climate and carbon cycle. They cycle ≈20% of the planet's fresh water and 30% of carbon contained in land vegetation." — Viera et al, PNAS 2005
Indigenous partners. We have a long history with autonomous Indigenous partners in the US, Canada, and Peru and our internal policies facilitate these relationships.
We listen, deal fairly, follow through on promises, respect privacy and autonomy, and cut out middlemen.
We also respect tribal politics and seek open, ongoing, and continual consensus prior to moving ahead on projects.
We never centralize project funds and all payments are made to collectives of no less than 3 families.
We take the time and effort to meet and work with traditional leaders in their language, not the most Westernized representatives.
Anthropologists, ecologists, and independent researchers are always welcome on our projects, and to use project data (with permision of Indigenous peoples who retain their own data rights).
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