A Brazilian company wants to save the rainforest by selling NFTs. By purchasing the digital tokens, customers should be able to protect certain areas of the Amazon. The backgrounds.
The Brazilian company Nemus started selling NFTs to save the rainforest last Friday. The news agency reports Reuters. With each purchase of such a digital token, interested parties sponsor forest areas of varying sizes.
In this framework, buyers receive information on the preservation of the corresponding properties via their NFTs. Nemus also promises, among other things, satellite images, licenses and other documents, according to company founder Flavio de Meira Penna.
Nemus sold NFTs for a total of 8,000 hectares of rainforest on day one. This corresponds to approximately ten percent of all tokens for sale. “I expect that to pick up speed quickly in the coming weeks,” Penna told Reuters.
This is what the NFT Rainforest Project looks like
“The initial goal of Nemus is to secure a sufficient amount of rainforest land to form a protective belt within the Brazilian Amazon to conserve the land and protect it from deforestation,” explains the Litepaper of the society.
The sale of NFTs is intended to serve two purposes: First, to set an example of how more value can be created by responsible use of the rainforest than by its destruction. Second, an ecosystem must be created in which participants can be rewarded for their good deeds, the document continues.
“With this approach, Nemus can become an engine of positive change, using cryptocurrencies to create a new model of environmental action that will help us regain our lost balance with nature.”
$51,000 for Rainforest NFTs
Each NFT to protect the rainforest consists of an artwork inspired by the flora and fauna of the Amazon region.
Buyers can buy tokens for plots of different sizes. Land is available from a quarter of a hectare to 81 hectares. Using an online map, sponsors can locate their country.
Nemus offers the Rainforest NFTs starting at a price of US$150. The largest land NFTs sell for up to $51,000.
Nemus founder Penna hopes the company will raise up to five million dollars. This will then be used to purchase another two million hectares of rainforest. The company’s owner told Reuters that the country in question was already being negotiated.
According to Penna, it’s not just rainforests that stand to benefit from the sale of NFTs. Nemus also intends to invest the funds raised in development measures in the future. This includes the harvesting of acai berries as well as Brazil nuts by local communities in the Amazon.
The Nemus project does not only meet with approval
Although the Nemus project seems very noble overall, critics have nevertheless questioned whether the NFTs of all things are suitable for the protection of the environment. The blockchain technology on which the corresponding tokens are based requires high computing power. This increases electricity consumption and releases greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
However, Nemus founder Penna dismissed this criticism to Reuters. According to him, the protection of endangered areas of the Amazon far exceeds the environmental costs of NFT transactions.
The fact that all of the land acquired through the sale of NFT is in the hands of Nemus might also raise a few eyebrows. The owners of NFT have no rights to the land thanks to Brazilian law.
One can only hope that the company will not offer a more profitable use of the purchased land in the Amazon in the future.
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