Eco Currency

The research provided in this project is a first step into a possible introduction of an ECO-currency. It is clear that the proposition provided is merely a concretization of the research and opens up a world of new questions. The proposition shows that many practical issues still need to be researched, designed for and validated. Future projects could use the foundations this project has laid, to dive into these new questions, and continue the rationale.

An intersting article on New York Times website today.

UNITED NATIONS — Governments are largely ignoring a biodiversity protection treaty they signed 17 years ago, allowing the rate of species decline to continue at an alarming rate, the United Nations said in a report released today.

Kickstarter is a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers etc. On this platform, creative projects can be displayed and a funding can be requested. People have to explain what they want to do and how much money they need. It’s close to the platform designed in one of the scenarios how to apply eco-currency; stewardship, where an online platform is used to show projects and to gain money.

This is part of summer 2010 advertising campaign of Magnum ice cream. And we thought that backing the currency with environmental value instead of gold, as explained in this scenario, was a crazy and wild idea…

Nowadays we take for granted is that money produces interest, yet this is a relatively new phenomenon. Bernard Lietaer analyzes the problem of interest and makes the comparison with the growth of a tree:

“Interest on money constitutes one of the most systematic causes of our destruction of the global environment. Consider as metaphor, for example, the life of a tree (or any other living resource): Because of interest, the net present value of any income far away in the future is negligible. So, it literally pays to cut down a tree and put the proceeds in a savings account instead of letting it grow for another decade or century. Similarly, the only types of tree worth planting commercially are the fastest-growing varieties such as pine. (Nobody plants redwoods for commercial reasons.) So even when we plant trees, we are systematically losing biodiversity.“

Perhaps it is not for nothing that, for more than a thousand years, interest on money was prohibited and considered usury by all three major religions. Read more at Lietaers Community Currencies project.

Screenshots of its field guide function

NOAH (Networked Organisms And Habitat) is a tool for people interested in their local wildlife. The infrastructure contains an Iphone application with which you can photograph any species that you come across.

An interesting article in Dutch newspaper “De Pers” today about Almir Narayamoga Surui. He is the Chief of a tribe in the Brazilian rainforest. He is nothing like the stereotypical image one might have. He uses new networks and technology, such as an iPhone, Skype and FaceBook to help preserve the forest. He even has connections with Google and Al Gore to help spread his cause.

The third scenario is based on interest over environmental value. Imagine you have a piece of land, sea or something else that is worth something for the ecology. A taxator will define the worth of this specific object according to Simpson’s diversity index. Every month interest is paid in ECO’s over this amount.

The second scenario. Many of our sources and research (this, and this TED-talk give a good introduction) show that a very good way towards reaching a goal is by collaboration and a bottom up approach. We don’t need big institutions, a lot of rules and bureaucracy, but allow a self-governming emergent system to grow. This is but one of the two main pillars on which this scenario is build.

This is the first of a series of scenarios. The starting standpoint we took was that a currency should be backed up by ‘real’ value. In the past this used to be the case with gold. Gold has some good properties which make it very valuable as a trading currency, and has been used as this for over 4000 years in a almost all cultures.It is not possible to get more through manipulation, and is thus a very good way to measure wealth.