Mycelium Foundation – micro-forest management with a non-profit environmental and tech foundation.

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Francisco d’Orey

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

franciscoxfpdorey@gmail.com

Additional applicants

Hugo Vieira – hugoangv@gmail.com

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

12

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

Yes

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” .

Although this is not a direct dependency, this project aims to be a part of the implementation of a broader approach to solving the lack of forest in industrialized countries. So this foundation will use the Open Source Forest plans and the MyCell marketplace and NFT development

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

No

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

Project won’t be open source.

[METADATA] Category of Proposal

RealFi

[METADATA] SDG rating

SDG goals:

• End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
• Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
• Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
• Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

 

SDG subgoals:

• By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management
• By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities
• Support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning
• Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries
• By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements
• By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally
• By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world
• By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity, in order to enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development
• Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species
• Promote fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and promote appropriate access to such resources, as internationally agreed
• By 2020, integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts
• Mobilize and significantly increase financial resources from all sources to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ecosystems
• By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
• By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality

 

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

• Forest area as a proportion of total land area
• Proportion of important sites for terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity that are covered by protected areas, by ecosystem type
• Progress towards sustainable forest management
• Coverage by protected areas of important sites for mountain biodiversity
• Mountain Green Cover Index
• Official development assistance on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity; and (b) revenue generated and finance mobilized from biodiversity-relevant economic instruments
• Red List Index

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

THE PROBLEM

The European Environment Agency (EEA) recently estimated that over 80% of Europe's natural habitats are degraded and missing biodiversity. 

European ecosystems are in urgent need of concerted restoration efforts both inside existing designated protected areas but also outside these spaces, such as in managed forests, agricultural lands, seas, and urban areas. 

Restoring damaged rivers, lakes, wetlands, forests, grasslands, marine habitats and other ecosystems would not only improve the overall resilience and quality of nature in Europe, but would bring many broader societal benefits. For example, the health of habitats for pollinators, such as bees and beetles, is critical for long-term food security in Europe. The condition of forests and wetlands is vital for climate change mitigation, and healthy ecosystems also provide better protection from extreme weather events and pollution.

(information from the EEA's briefing on "The importance of restoring nature in Europe").

Almost every project that focus on increasing biodiversity or on carbon offset, focus on increasing forest spaces in developing countries, although those are usually the countries not responsible for most carbon emissions. Also, modern agricultural practices tend to decrease space that was occupied by native plants and was once used by animal and insect species as a refuge. Since land is usually more expensive in developed countries, land owners seek to maximize profit per square meter, offsetting their carbon emissions to under developed countries. Even if it is compensated elsewhere, this creates a lack of biodiversity where it is actually needed (As reported by the EEA).

OUR APPROACH

Our focus is to create a mycelium of a decentralized network of micro-forests that are present where biodiversity is actually missing and is needed. These micro-forests will also be seeded with local natural mushroom mycelium to act not only as a symbiont in root development, but also to provide local populations with edible mushrooms that were once traditional to these areas. Also, a great number of the animal and insect species are natural predators of pests and plant diseases and could help in reducing the application of pesticides in modern agriculture.

These micro-forests would be a safe haven to birds, insects and plants that are becoming more and more scarce in developed countries. The implementation of water reservoirs, together with local species will also become important fire barriers to today's more frequent wildfires. We aim to create a replicable open-source model, that will be community built and can be implemented in several countries with the same success rate, depending on simple solutions for micro water management, natural native plant selection and priority to species on the Red List Index, and where everyone can play an important role from individuals to companies wanting to offset their carbon emissions in their own area of influence, contrasting with current greenwashing options.

Furthermore, by exclusively planting native trees, we will select species that exhibit greater resilience against wildfires. While these trees alone cannot halt the spread of fires, they act as a vegetal barrier, effectively impeding the rapid advancement of burning areas. Remarkably, these tree species possess the ability to regenerate and flourish as green plants in the following year. Ingeniously, our team is designing solutions to extract water from the air. Yes, you read that correctly! A substantial amount of freshwater exists in the atmosphere at any given time, though it remains imperceptible to us. Nonetheless, simple yet effective techniques are being deployed worldwide to capture and utilize this airborne water for irrigation, human and animal consumption. In arid and sun-drenched regions, these innovative methods can accelerate forest growth and ensure the well-being of diverse plant and animal species.

THE PLAN

Mycelium Foundation draws inspiration from the intricate root-like structure of fungi that enables intercommunication between trees beneath the forest floor. We want to be the hub of knowledge and technology that will spread it around our peers wherever they are in the world. The Micro Forest Open-Source Plan will be available for all, to use, adapt and reshape as we get more input and technology into it. The Foundation core purpose will be to manage NFT's and the micro-forests with maximal expertise, accompanying the developments in technology, forestry management, and Carbon markets for highest possible potential of growth and information sharing. With Decentralized Funding we aim to keep the forests in perfect shape, safe of wildfires and with abundance of water for decades, ensuring that the CO2 captured is effectively stored underground.

Our vision is to cultivate an inclusive ecosystem where anyone can contribute by acquiring the NFTs, becoming part of the Forest's history from the beginning. Within the second year of projects underway we want to address governments to take our model as an inspiration for urban degraded areas such as industrial wastelands or urban plots with no possible development for construction. We aim to get to the maximum potential of the plan by managing the inputs from the Cardano Network as the projects are developed.

Because it is an open-source plan, any Cardano Member will have access to share it around the globe. This is a global solution for a global problem. Forests are hard to keep anywhere and money is always an issue. Foundation Mycelium will connect people with the knowledge to make Forests happen and endure, with people who want to be part of the solution but can't do it for lack of resources, land, money or time.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

PROJECT CONTEXT

Our whole project focuses on 3 main targets. Developing the replicable model, implementing the support NFT base for acquiring and maintaining the micro-forests, and creating the Mycelium Foundation that will acquire land and maintain these micro-forests. The Mycelium Foundation will also be responsible for developing other environmental and technological projects in the near future.

FIRST TARGET

The first main target is the replicable model that will be used to create these biodiversity spots. The Open Source Forest. You can find more information and support it here.

SECOND TARGET

The second main target will be the MyCELL Marketplace. It will be 100% dependable on NMKR to create a simple and working solution for the NFT based support community to the project. You can find more information and support it here.

THIRD TARGET

The third main target (this project), is the Mycelium Foundation that will acquire land and manage the implementation of the Micro-Forests. Our main goal is developing environmental and technological solutions based on the Cardano platform, sharing it among all stakeholders and interested Cardano members. We will depend on achieving our first goals, basing the Open-Source Forest Plan on NMKR to create a simple and working solution for the MYCELL NFT based support community to the project. By this phase we expect to have raised a critical network of early adopters to share enough feedback and information to grow sustainably. This growth will constantly be shared among all of Cardano's network channels, so more and more people engage with the Network. Also, by publishing achievements and milestones along the development of the project, we aim to promote Cardano’s platform for more people to take it as a way for reaching incredible goals. We want to Increase in the market cap & number of users of Cardano’s top RealFi projects in the first year after launching the foundation.

As a show of transparency, we also intend to make the Cardano Foundation as an eventual beneficiary in case of a non predicted dissolution of the foundation, and we will have a public discussion phase on the Mycelium Foundation's legal draft where everyone can give their input.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

As a nonprofit Foundation, the most important metrics in our opinion are related to the growth of the project and the engagement and empowerment of the network. So we will measure the amount of public and private investments related to natural capital tokenization in and outside of Web3 2 years after the first trees are in the ground.

This will give us enough time to evaluate the sturdiness of the Open-source Forest plan and time to reach important actors, local and central governments, media channels and increasing stakeholders, that will make the project reach the broader public.

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

Website: Our dedicated website will provide comprehensive information about our NFT for Decentralized Forest. This page will be as a central hub for posting updates, reports on our progress and relevant news.

Social Media and Blog Posts: Social media platforms will be a stage one primary means of communication, to share project updates, milestones, and significant achievements. We hope with these channels to reach a broader audience and engage with the Cardano community, influencers and strong climate change actors.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

Our ability to carry out this project is justified on the fact that we are a cohesive team with members that understand and work closely with the CO2 markets, forest and rural development and sustainability, but also active members in the Cardano community and with all the required technological expertise.

All our team members have made their professional lives working in top companies and are recognised as experts in their field of action.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

As stated before, this project is part of a broader approach to bringing ecosystems back to pollution sources and places where biodiversity is scarce.

So the specific goals to this project in particular are:

• Create the legal entity Mycelium Foundation as a non-profit NGO with environmental and technological scope;
• Acquire the first land plot and implement the first case of a micro-forest within highly farmed or industrialized land and according to the Open Source Forest Plan;
• Get at least 2 private company partners to be early adopters for the first implementation.

These objectives are straightforward and easy to measure and audit by the Cardano Comunity.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Full extensive description of the milestones and outputs is shown on the link on the bottom of this section.

But here's a brief description of the milestones and activities for this project. Since our focus is to restore forest, our milestones are named over trees and bushes native to Europe:

1. Lavandula pedunculate => to be delivered in the first 1/4 of the implementation year
2. Branding and design => The key activities are related to branding and design of website, logo and branding package;
3. Legal => list of legal issues to create the non-profit Foundation
4. Rosmarinus officinalis => to be delivered in the second 1/4 of the implementation year
5. Metric definition => Key values and outline for carbon credit certification of the foundation's projects;
6. Myrtus communis => to be delivered in the third 1/4 of the implementation year
7. Constitution draft => Legal draft of the foundation constitution papers. To ensure transparency we will propose the Cardano Foundation to be one of the legal beneficiaries in case of dissolution of the present foundation. Will also include a public consultation stage so that the community can pronounce itself about the Foundation's legal constitution.
8. Olea europaea => to be delivered in the fourth 1/4 of the implementation year
9. Legal constitution => Constitution of the foundation as a non-profit environmental and technological organization.
10. Forest sharing => First NFT distribution of a physical site where the Open Source Micro-Forest is implemented. This stage will also incorporate the first business partners and companies that want to offset their carbon emissions.
11. Micro-forest creation => Creation of the first micro-forest according to the open source module.
12. Stages after this fund:
13. Pinus pinaster => second year
14. This will result in the implementation of more of these models and the possibility for external implementers to the foundation that can be supported byt the foundation to implement this model.
15. Quercus suber => second year
16. Implementation of this model in more than 1 country.

Please find the detailed steps and milestones for the implementation of the whole plan, including the Open Source Forest, Mycell Micro-Forest NFT and Mycelium Foundation in the following link.

Full project Steps, Milestones and Outputs

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Full extensive description of the milestones and outputs is shown on the link on the bottom of this section.

But here's a brief description of the milestones and activities for this project. Since our focus is to restore forest, our milestones are named over trees and bushes native to Europe:

1. Lavandula pedunculate => to be delivered in the first 1/4 of the implementation year
2. Branding and design => The key activities are related to branding and design of website, logo and branding package;
3. Legal => list of legal issues to create the non-profit Foundation
4. Rosmarinus officinalis => to be delivered in the second 1/4 of the implementation year
5. Metric definition => Key values and outline for carbon credit certification of the foundation's projects;
6. Myrtus communis => to be delivered in the third 1/4 of the implementation year
7. Constitution draft => Legal draft of the foundation constitution papers. To ensure transparency we will propose the Cardano Foundation to be one of the legal beneficiaries in case of dissolution of the present foundation. Will also include a public consultation stage so that the community can pronounce itself about the Foundation's legal constitution.
8. Olea europaea => to be delivered in the fourth 1/4 of the implementation year
9. Legal constitution => Constitution of the foundation as a non-profit environmental and technological organization.
10. Forest sharing => First NFT distribution of a physical site where the Open Source Micro-Forest is implemented. This stage will also incorporate the first business partners and companies that want to offset their carbon emissions.
11. Micro-forest creation => Creation of the first micro-forest according to the open source module.
12. Stages after this fund:
13. Pinus pinaster => second year
14. This will result in the implementation of more of these models and the possibility for external implementers to the foundation that can be supported byt the foundation to implement this model.
15. Quercus suber => second year
16. Implementation of this model in more than 1 country.

Please find the detailed steps and milestones for the implementation of the whole plan, including the Open Source Forest, Mycell Micro-Forest NFT and Mycelium Foundation in the following link.

Full project Steps, Milestones and Outputs

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

As it's shown below, the main cost here is also the main reason why the planet is losing the war on biodiversity and climate change in developed countries. The cost of land and workforce to implement these natural spaces is as high as it would be to develop an intensive economic activity

Although the implementation of the first project will have a high cost for which we intend the fund's participation, our model, as explained before, is to share the costs of future micro implementations through active and interested stakeholders, whether they're individual or companies.

So this first project implementation will work as a showcase for future private investment in the environment.

This is one more reason why this Foundation is needed and that we are sure that will make a positive change in the future of our planet, ending once and for all "offshore forests" and "greenwashing".

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The costs breakdown was calculated with a thorough research about the time involved for each stage and the general rates for these services in the industry.

The higher costs is in actual physical land and operations for forestry implementation.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept