The Centree Protocol
Team
Darren Zal
Shawn Anderson
Short Summary
The Centree protocol is a regenerative finance and forest stewardship protocol that creates investment assets representing protected forest areas. Enabling upfront natural capital investment into the forest, to better compete with extractive economics, by securitizing ecosystem value and funding ongoing stewardship and regeneration activity through monetized ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity protection. Designed to provide a holistic approach to protecting and stewarding ecosystems by accounting for and monetizing their true ecological asset value.
What is the existing target protocol you are hoping to improve or enhance?
Ecological stewardship, including the protocols for natural capital accounting, ecological credit financing, and knowledge sharing.
What is the core idea or insight about potential improvement you want to pursue?
The extractive industry recognises the right to extract (a logging license) as a financial asset, distinct from both land title and the lumber commodity it produces. In direct economic counterbalance to this the Centree protocol enables the right to Protect, Steward and Regenerate the forest to be recognised as a financial asset, distinct from both land title and the monetized ecoservices it can produce such as carbon offsets. This enables natural capital investors to purchase and hold asset value in the ecosystem itself, rather than simply forward purchasing eco-services as is often the case. In addition, rather than using land area which delivers very little ecological context, the forest assets our protocol creates are denominated in an ecological measurement index that directly incorporates forest maturity. This combination allows capital to more easily flow into at-risk forest areas, including old growth forests, making their protection more economically viable that current protocols. The protocol includes a global mutual support network for individual forest communities to mutualize profits, risks, and knowledge, ensuring a collaborative and sustainable approach to ecosystem management.
What is your discovery methodology for investigating the current state of the target protocol?
We are researching existing ecological stewardship protocols and platforms to synthesize the best methodologies and tools. Our initial focus is on developing core accounting methodologies for carbon and biodiversity. We are collaborating with researchers to refine our approach to quantifying and valuing these essential aspects of ecosystem health and incorporating it into our ecological indexing mechanism.
In what form will you prototype your improvement idea?
We are working in deep partnership with a First Nation in BC, Canada to protect a 136,000 acre Forest Area currently under a Tree Farm License owned by a logging company. We are planning for the outcome of this grant to be the application of our prototype protocol to this pilot area. We will securitize and market investment assets in this forest by the end of the summer, releasing upfront capital investment into the First Nation community to help secure the protection of the forest area. This forest area will then generate ongoing revenue from carbon offsets which will be channeled into the community to fund ongoing stewardship alongside protected forest asset holder and community profit share.
How will you field-test your improvement idea?
Our pilot project will serve as a proof-of-concept for the Centree protocol and demonstrate its viability in creating a sustainable economic model for forest stewardship.
Who will be able to judge the quality of your output?
Experts in regenerative economics, such as John Fullerton, Charles Eisentein and Daniel Schmachtenberger, can verify that our solution provides a sustainable financial model for land stewards, investors, and protocol developers. Local experts in forest ecology, such as Suzanne Simard and Garry Merkel, can assess the health of our forests. Experts in regenerative web3 design, such as Regen Network and BlockScience, can validate our digital accounting and finance infrastructure.
How will you publish and evangelize your improvement idea?
We will market and promote the digital assets for our pilot project. We will publish open-source code for the implementation of our tech stack including digital twins and digital asset infrastructure. Our pilot project will serve as a proof-of-concept example, demonstrating how the Centree protocol can be effectively implemented for forests. We will actively share our findings and successes to inspire and encourage others to adopt similar approaches.
What is the success vision for your idea?
Success is a healthy and thriving world where people live in symbiosis with the natural ecosystems and the value of that service to humanity is recognised fully in our economic systems. We envision a paradigm shift in how we value nature, with commonly acknowledged dimensions of value such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and water regulation explicitly accounted for. Ultimately, success means that the Centree protocol is adopted by other platforms to steward a wide range of ecosystems beyond forests, contributing to a global regenerative economy.