CNFTs for afforestation in India

[IMPACT]

We will develop a platform for crowdfunding resources for planting tree saplings. A sapling or a bunch of saplings in some cases will be represented by a Cardano NFT to be issued to those who pledge the resource. Gamification aspects will promote engagement from users.

This platform will be for individuals, businesses, NGOs, environmentalists and farmers to engage through a common medium to channelise resources for afforestation as well as use the resulting NFTs representing goodwill or social credit.

How does it work?

At a high level, the parties involved in this solution are

• Those undertaking afforestation activities
• Samaritans who donate the resources for the saplings
• The online dApp platform acts as an intermediary to connect the supply and demand side and drive engagement.

Ancillary players include 3rd party NFT marketplaces who can play a role since these NFTs are tradable.

Those undertaking afforestation activity can onboard the platform and publish their needs for resources on the platform. In the first phase, the onboarding process will involve manual interaction between platform support team and entities onboarded.

The platform morphs these requirements into NFTs for presenting to users on the supply side of the resources.

Willing members of the community can crowdfund the required resources for each afforestation campaign by purchasing the NFTs. When you donate to projects of your liking, not only do you feel great but you also earn NFT(s) representing your goodwill. Similarly, generous companies, charities can further support afforestation by bridging funding shortages and where relevant companies can opt in to use their CSR funds too in this regard.

A visual representation: https://res.cloudinary.com/reshm/image/upload/v1647167645/Catalyst%20Fund%208/NFT_afforestation_n7dt9u.jpg

Components of the platform:

• Website: Allows discovery of various campaigns for afforestation with details of the entity or individuals who are facilitating the planting. This is the supply side of financial resources. On the demand side, it allows campaign creators to publish afforestation campaigns.
• NFT minter: This will mint the NFTs that represent one or a group of sapling depending on the afforestation campaign it represents. The NFT minter will be using cardano-cli at this time. Once a fully functional Plutus Application Backend (PAB) is released we would look to use smart contacts for improving the efficiency of minting (in terms of ease/automation) wherever feasible.
• Marketplace: Discover the NFTs associated with published campaigns for afforestation drives. Users can buy NFTs to signify their pledge for planting sapling(s).
• A communication channel for the community to get together and interact. The communication channel will be external to the website as of now. In future, value added features like discussion forums can be added.
• Reporting module that provides details about activity for each user and at aggregate levels.

Gamification

• The NFTs will contain in the metadata of its minting transaction properties, type of tree that it will fund, ecological benefits and rarity of the species, the approximate geocode of the location of the sapling. Representing a real work entity with properties these NFTs as such might attain considerable trade worthiness. The price of the NFT will reflect the cost of planting the sapling.
• There will be tags and badges designed around each campaign that will be awarded to those who donate by way of NFT purchase. A profile section will be developed which will illustrate the goodwill earned by the user based on the properties linked to their donation. We might call it ‘ecological credits’.

Growing the Cardano community

We want to grow the Indian Cardano community through this initiative centered around afforestation. Community involvement is going to be key for the long term success of this project.

The use of tradable NFTs with gamification is intended to boost overall attraction. A communication channel will be created for interested members of the community to know about the project, provide suggestions and take up roles if they would like to volunteer.

We think that bringing together people in such a way will promote ideation and energize efforts towards conservation of the environment.

Transparency & propriety

It is to be ensured that the platform prevents scams and cases of misappropriation of funds raised. In this regard, only registered NGO/charities/companies/farmer’s associations etc will be onboarded on the demand side for undertaking afforestation activities.

At the same time, it might be possible that eventually the platform can start to work on a trusted model where anyone can participate as handler of funds raised. For example: Any individual may offer to grow and nurture trees in their backyard sponsored by NFTs. Community members who choose to can contribute. We envision this to become feasible at a later stage.

Regulations in India with respect to taxation of income from digital assets have to be adhered to and for ensuring that the platform follows the government regulations, processes involved in resources mobilization will be legally vetted.

Our motivation

• Some of our team members have been developing in Cardano for a while and we are looking forward to bringing together at least a group of the community members in India centered around real life use cases and social utility with projects built on Cardano.

• We care about preserving the environment and we feel this project gives an ingenious way to call attention of people towards afforestation and towards Cardano.

• We are inspired by the Cardano Forest initiative from Veritree and we would like to achieve similar outcomes in India while catering to local specificities and by engaging existing entities working to improve the environment.

• There are NGOs that work to promote and raise funds for afforestation. However the initiatives often do not have the mechanism to attract sponsors or reach out to individuals and are instead based on voluntary donations. By leveraging the amusement of NFTs we would like to tilt the scale of supply and demand by providing those who might pledge resources more reasons to do so.

Impact created:

• Improve the quality of the environment with a dApp platform for afforestation on top of Cardano . Contribute the quality of soil and agriculture by supporting initiatives like agro-forestry.
• Demonstrate the applicability of Cardano NFTs with real life implications. When NFTs represent 'living trees' and improve the environment we live in they are more meaningful.
• Promote positive sentiment about use of blockchain technology with focus on Cardano, among the society and government. Cryptocurrency has been a controversial topic of late, especially in India. It has become infamous due to widespread marketing or meme coins and incidents of scams. The Indian government has been mulling regulatory action while highlighting that its stand is not against blockchain technology. This project will highlight social and environmental utility with limelight on Cardano.
• Grow the Indian Cardano community. This project reaches out to sections of the society that may otherwise not learn about blockchain and Cardano. The target population of the platform is wider than just tech savvy people and includes people from all walks of life. The gamification features are intended to boost and prolong community engagement.

Future scope:

• Though this proposal focuses on India under this challenge, the platform once developed is agnostic to geography. It can be scaled to other countries as well. In essence it brings together multiple sides of the society with a Cardano NFT based marketplace platform acting as the intermediary.
• The project can be expanded to various environment restoration projects. If we are successful in achieving the desired result, we would indeed scope in a plan to expand to initiatives like lake reclamation, wildlife and habitat conservation, tackling environmental pollution etc.

The challenge KPI this project is directly aligned with is 'Number of Indian focused dapps/services actually built'. The NFT marketplace component of this proposal is a dApp. The platform as such is a service that uses Cardano blockchain.

Indirectly, the success of this project will increase the popularity of Cardano and contribute to the other KPIs related to Indian focussed projects and interaction with Catalyst.

Adverse regulatory changes after the commencement of the project can impact our scheme of implementation of this project. Even though we recognise this as a risk, recently the government has announced rates for tax on income from digital assets. This move is reckoned to be a positive signal for building with blockchain.

[FEASIBILITY]

In previous sections, we described the details of the solution. Here we illustrate the roadmap for implementing the solution.

Roadmap

Month 1 (expecting to be around June / July 2022)

• UX design for platform
• Selection of NGOs/schools/colleges/other entities for initial onboarding.
• Start platform development

Month 2

• Develop frontend and backend of platform
• Prepare first set of campaigns
• Prepare gamification factors, metadata for NFTs

Month 3

• Publish the first set of afforestation drives and mint NFTs.
• Publicize on social media and open up registrations.
• Coordinate delivery of campaign and collection evidence of fulfillment.

Month 4

• Prepare a report of activity on the platform and the campaigns facilitated.
• Social media and traditional media marketing about accomplishments.
• Onboard more entities for afforestation campaigns.

Month 5

• Continue publishing campaigns.
• Assign requisite platform fee to compensate for minting costs.
• Invite community members to participate in the running of the platform.
• Open source the project

Month 6 & beyond

• Prepare a consolidated report of activity.
• Provide necessary technical support and maintenance.
• Community can participate in the day to day activities of the platform.
• Open source the project. Other geographies or teams may extend or implement the same solution.

Sustainability of this project

The tech infrastructure costs for the platform for a year are factored into the budget.

The operational cost involved is related to NFT minting costs. Batches of NFTs initially minted will be covered under the budget. Once crowdfunding starts a minor percentage would be assigned as platform fee, which will cover costs for minting/running the cardano node. Beyond a year, community members may manage the platform and future catalyst funds may be requested for major enhancements.

• One Cardano/Plutus developer part time for 2 months ($2000 x 2) = $4000
• 1 UX designer for 1 month ($1000 x 1 ) = $1000
• 1 frontend and 1 backend developer for 3 months for application development ($2000 x 2 x 3 ) = $12000
• 1 Project Manager/Coordinator part time for 6 months ($750 x 6) = $4500
• Legal and marketing costs = $1500
• Tech services (website hosting, GCP,GSuite, Discord etc.) 1 year: $2000

Total = $25000

We are a team of experienced Software Engineers and Entrepreneurs from India. Members of our team include Plutus Pioneers, previously funded Catalyst proposers and an ambassador in the Cardano ecosystem. We have been building in Cardano for close to a year and have various open source repositories for Plutus/Cardano which can be found in our Github repo added in this proposal. An NFT marketplace our team member is part of the development team is

• Unsigs NFT marketplace ( https://unsigs-frontend.vercel.app/ ) through Gimbalabs project based learning initiative.

Reshma Mohan

• Professional Software Engineer
• Plutus Pioneer (1st cohort)
• Prism Pioneer (currently undergoing)
• Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering
• Ambassador to ‘Genius Yield’.
• Proposer of funded proposals in Fund 7

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reshmhn/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/reshmhn

Karthik Vishwanathan

• Lead Software engineer with 11 years of experience.
• Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science
• Ex engineer at Amazon
• Demonstrated history of building software for e-commerce, travel & tourism industry.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthik-viswanathan-90614052

Sarod Sasidharan

• Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering
• CSWA certification from Dassault Systèmes issued in 2018
• Master Diploma in CADD
• Social entrepreneur
• R&D experience in the area of mobility instruments for patients and physically challenged.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarodsasidharan20091989/

Ganesh

• Professional Software Engineer for over 8 years
• Plutus & Prism Pioneer (1st cohorts)
• Gimbalabs PPBL Team Member
• Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics Engineering
• Has lead development of large scale applications
• Experience in the financial services industry

Github: https://github.com/gannith

[AUDITABILITY]

We have listed the various components of this platform in the solution details.

The roadmap maps these components into tangible deliverables in the prescribed time frame.

We will follow Agile methodology to break down the tasks and track its completion.

Using the milestones listed in the roadmap external evaluators will be able to track progress as well.

Our success metrics

We want the platform to be launched 3 months from the start of development with one or more entities onboarded at launch.

In 1 month

• More than 100 trees were planted and NFTs bought.
• Afforestation campaigns facilitated in at least 2 states in India.
• 3 or more entities onboarded.
• More than 50 user registrations

In 3 months

• More than 1000 trees were planted and NFTs bought.
• Afforestation campaigns facilitated in at least 4 states in India.
• More than 300 user registrations

In 6 months

• More than 3000 trees were planted and NFTs bought.
• Afforestation campaigns facilitated in at least 4 states in India.
• More than 300 user registrations and participating members in the community channel.
• Cardano community channel linked to this project doubles in strength

In 1 year

• More than 10000 trees planted
• Afforestation campaigns facilitated in more than 10 states in India.
• More than 1000 participating members in the community channel.
• Rapidly growing Cardano community associated with this project.

KPIs

• Number of trees plante/number of NFTs issued.
• Number of cities/towns where afforestation campaigns are implemented.
• New members joining Cardano community via communication channel/publicity for this project.

New proposal.

SDG Rating

SDG goals:

Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

SDG subgoals:

15.2 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

15.a Mobilize and significantly increase financial resources from all sources to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ecosystems

15.b Mobilize significant resources from all sources and at all levels to finance sustainable forest management and provide adequate incentives to developing countries to advance such management, including for conservation and reforestation

17.16 Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries

17.7 Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

15.2.1 Progress towards sustainable forest management

17.7.1 Total amount of funding for developing countries to promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies

15.b.1 (a) Official development assistance on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity; and (b) revenue generated and finance mobilized from biodiversity-relevant economic instruments

#proposertoolsdg