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.

Interim exhibition set-up

Last week we used a little experimental set-up during the mid-term exhibitions to get some initial feedback on the stewardship scenario. A tangible version of our concept platform was presented. Visitors were free to propose projects and post them on the platform. Each visitor also got three votes (lego blocks) to place next to flags on the world map that represented the project proposals.

For a time lapse movie on how the exhibition evolved please check our freshly initiated platform www.webalance.org.

Species found in a single cubic foot around a coral reef in French Polynesia. Photo by David Liittschwager via National Geographic.

Photographer David Liittschwager set out for five different habitats on locations around the world to place a cubic foot. For a period resembling a twenty-four hour cycle he photographed all species that passed through this cube. Resulting photos, making of videos and an article by biodiversity expert E.O. Wilson appeared in the National Geographic Magazine of February 2010.

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.

Tonight at the Eco-Currency Night four programs will be shown about inspirations, backgrounds and economical scenarios. Tonight we will show:

The Ecosystem Marketplace, a project of Forest Trends, is a leading source of news, data, and analytics on markets and payments for ecosystem services (such as water quality, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity). We believe that by making accessible information on policy, finance, regulation, science, business, and other market-relevant factors, markets for ecosystem services will one day become a fundamental part of our economic system, helping give value to environmental services that, for too long, have been taken for granted.

In an article by the Dutch CPB (bureau for economic policy analysis) the application of the contingent value method is critically assessed for cost benefit analysis. They question whether nature and landscape values can be expressed in Euros. Although the method is widely used in assessing e.g. infrastructure projects, many critics remain.

As E.O. Wilson accepts his 2007 TED Prize, he makes a plea on behalf of all creatures that we learn more about our biosphere — and build a networked encyclopedia of all the world’s knowledge about life. Watch video on TED.com

With the majority of the world’s spicies not yet discovered, E.O. Wilson states we are flying blind into the environmental future. Ofcourse it’s clear to anyone we need nature to survive, but from an economical perspective we only need the resources, not untouched nature. Wilson makes clear that this is a big mistake and the way we are going now means the extermination of millions of species not even yet discovered, species that might be the very species enabling humans to live on planet earth.