Eco Currency

Cut down forest on Indonesian Borneo

In order to develop poorer areas, the Brazilian government has been stimulating agriculture in some remote and forested areas until recently. Although the education and healthcare facilities have improved the lives of the local people, it has come with great natural depletion. Deforestation accounts for 70% of Brazils carbon emissions today.

The richness of the soil in these areas make for attractive farming of soy and palm oil for which there is a high demand in American, European and Chinese industries. Because people cut down their trees for economic reasons, it is necessary to provide them with a financial alternative.

A new way to view the world; ECO-mode, different areas tagged by amoebas

As nature is worth eco currency, there needs to be a system to assess the value of nature and to calculate how many eco’s nature is worth. A concept to truly and subjectively assess the value of nature is to use specially designed and grown amoebas.

The current situation and the potential of eco-currency

Currently a brazilian farmer like Alberto, with land in a rain forest doesn’t have much choice to survive. The easiest way for him to make any money out of his land is to cut the wood, burn the rest of it and turn it into farmland so he can start agriculture.

Areas where high poverty and high population density coincides with high biodiversity may indicate areas in which poor people likely have no other choice than to unsustainably extract resources, in turn threatening biodiversity.  © 2006 UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Some of the poorest countries are actually very rich in biodiversity. The current imbalance in tangible rewards for preserving the forrest versus cutting them down to harvest crops makes it unpreventable that valuable nature is lost in favor of economy.