RootProject and Global Partnership for Sustainable Solutions (GPSS) are exploring an innovative, blockchain-powered funding initiative for urgently needed reforestation on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. The successful implementation of the GPSS reforestation project upon funding will help restore micro-climate balance to reduce severe weather, erosion, and other climate-related problems resulting from deforestation. The program will also provide the indigenous people who own the forests with generations of sustainable income. Finally, the GPSS program will create a powerful new funding strategy and mechanism for reforestation projects around the world. “Economic and environmental experts had approached us to create an eco-credit model for reforestation that produced real financial returns, thus making eco-credits into marketable investments, not simply options for small donor-driven funds. To make this work, we needed a partner with a large-scale, fully developed reforestation program. We were exceptionally lucky to find GPSS, a company that had already put years of on-the-ground research, development and planning in place for a large-scale reforestation project in Mindanao,” states Dr. Nicholas Adams Judge, a political economist and CEO, RootProject. The Caraga region hosts one of the last surviving regions of rainforest cover in the Philippines. Today, less than 3% of primary forest cover remains in the Philippines, resulting in changes to climate, rain patterns, flash flooding, water siltation, and soil erosion that have harmed agricultural practices and food security. This massive loss of forest cover has had approximately a 40% decrease in the productivity of the land over the last 30 years. For example, cropping cycles per year for corn and palay have been reduced from three cycles to two, with the second crop often depleted or failing due to the lack of rain. The reduction in harvests has increased the rate of poverty and malnutrition among the indigenous people. The Mindanao campaign will launch the initial stage of GPSS’s scalable plan to reforest more than 250,000 acres of certified indigenous land (Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles — CADT’s). Specifically, the funds raised will support the creation of a plantation of lauan (Philippine mahogany) and the following social and environmental benefits: Create long-term employment for indigenous people that creates sustainable income and rising quality of life; Provide hands-on job-skills training for indigenous people; Educate foresters to help restore the microclimate that benefits food production; Create multi-stakeholders along the supply-chain to build indigenous cluster industries that strengthen and empower indigenous communities; Contribute to the promotion of sustainable peace and development; and Large scale reforestation with sustainable plantations of multiple wood species, while incorporating small shareholder farms using Sloping Agriculture Land Technology. Solving Urgent Problems: About the Project The GPSS-RootProject Reforestation Initiative has been designed to rehabilitate, protect and preserve the CADT’s located in the Caraga Region. Together, our aim is to facilitate three core objectives: Rehabilitation of the ecosystem; Restoration of the micro-climate; and Sustainable livelihood development for the indigenous people who inhabit these sacred lands. The GPSS development plan for Caraga is designed to benefit the poor land-holding indigenous people as joint venture partners, along with global investors and business partners. Our goal is to facilitate shared value economic developments that provide the indigenous people with a sustainable, growing economy with global markets, while also addressing needs in education, cultural preservation, and health care. Working holistically, GPSS and the indigenous people are creating a new global standard for comprehensive economic, environmental, social development. The GPSS-RootProject reforestation initiative offers investors an unprecedented opportunity for significant, positive environmental impact coupled with sustainable economic development benefitting indigenous people. About Caraga The Caraga Region, located on the northeastern portion of the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, is among the top regions poised for significant economic growth in the booming Asia-Pacific economic zone. With its undeveloped natural resources and vast, contiguous land, the region offers tremendous opportunities to unleash new wealth and reduce poverty. In fact, a recent report published by the World Bank, the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), and the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) states that “unlocking Mindanao’s potential is critical in bringing down poverty in the entire country.” The region, designated as Administrative Region 13 by the Philippine government, is sub-divided into 5 provinces: Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, the Dinagat Islands, Surigao del Norte, and Surigao del Sur. As a result of IPRA Law, the land in these provinces have been legally organized in contiguous tracts of land owned and recognized by the indigenous tribes on behalf of the people. About Global Partnership for Sustainable Solutions GPSS is an international development corporation that brings socially and environmentally responsible companies, institutions, and investors together into emerging markets for scalable, sustainable, shared value development. GPSS bring the world’s best practices, technologies, and innovations to developing regions to optimize economic impact linked with positive social, environmental, and governance benefits. GPSS works holistically with the local people in developing regions to create new models for sustainable development in which the local people are economic partners benefiting with global investors and businesses in the creation of new industries and markets. About RootProject RootProject applies blockchain technology to crowdfunding in order to change the way we fund the things we care about most. This means that we leverage the power of smart contracts to collect zero fees on the crowdfunding campaigns that RootProject supports. Instead of collecting a typical crowdfunding fee, a percentage of funds raised purchases ROOTS tokens on the open market, thus driving the price up. We call this the currency-as-fee model. By locking our ROOTS tokens away for just a year or two, we are able to return all funds to our partner organizations and partner projects so all of your contribution is going directly to the nonprofit organization and not to administrative fees. About Global Action Platform Global Action Platform is the leading international university-business alliance advancing scalable, sustainable solutions for abundant food, health, and prosperity. We serve as the exclusive NGO development partner for GPSS to align philanthropic and social impact investments with GPSS commercial investments in developing regions. Through our programs, Global Action Platform mobilizes and inform cross-sector leaders, direct investments into transformative businesses, leverage technology for analytics and collaboration, and communicate findings through global publications and media.
