Blockchain technology – originally developed as the underlying digital infrastructure for crypto currency Bitcoin – has since its inception in 2008/9 been tried in a variety of sectors, including nature conservation. Often celebrated for its ability to make processes more transparent, accountable, and to create digital and easily tradeable assets, blockchain has been used for the tokenization of natural assets, the set up of carbon registries, and for the creation of collectible fundraising NFTs, among other uses.
Despite being a growing phenomenon, the use of blockchain in nature conservation has scarcely been critically empirically studied. This is the gap this PhD aims to cover. Rooted in critical metrology, political ecology of data, and commodification literature it asks 1) how and why blockchain is used for nature conservation and restoration fundraising, 2) what aspects of nature conservation blockchain succeeds in making transparent and economically valuable and how it does so, as well as which aspects potentially remain invisible and/or are harder to value economically, and 3) how these solutions impact the peoples and places intended to benefit.
These three questions are answered using qualitative methods and by studying three main types of stakeholders: blockchain entrepreneurs (and their projects), nature conservationists and restorers who use blockchain solutions on the ground, and local communities living in and/or around the blockchain-funded preserved and restored landscapes.
Andrea Stuit
PhD Researcher