[PROPOSAL] Green Shoots - Bring Reforestation projects to life with NFTs

[jblm]

Hi all!

Originally, I had made this reply in my native language (spanish), but I have discovered that the automatic translation button does not translate all the content when the text is very long (ups!, @David_NEAR ). But, this limitation may also have other languages other than English, or Spanish. Sorry…

So I decided to rewrite it in English, because I think it’s important to pass on my knowledge to everyone. Here, I am going to give you my deepest appreciation from my experience as a nature photographer and as a scientist.

@marianeu

Here we are talking about 150 USD ±, going to a photographer that lives close to the site, in Ecuador. This person would then lead the artistic elements. Ok, what does that mean exactly? What are her/his tasks?
What does the Artistic Plan for Pilot Project hold in terms of information and planning?

@marianeu

So then the photographer person from phase I needs to travel to the site. But I had understood the person lives close to the site. Why does the person need 500 USD for traveling?

Having only local photographers would be ideal, it would reduce the initial financing costs of this proposal. In the absence of local photographers, the work would have to be done by a single photographer with expensive living to remote sites where the projects are developed (transportation, accommodation and food).

However, for these photographers to do their job, take the concept pursued by the proposal, they should have this profile: basic knowledge about the appreciation of nature and the associated biological terminology. In the absence of this profile, they need some guidelines or instructions on what motives, subjects and biological details should be photographed to monitor the success of the medium or small reforestation program.

These guidelines can be in the form of videoconferences, demonstration videos, or else an illustrated guide with examples in a blog or portable digital document (PDF). Rather than a general photographer, this is the job of a properly advised nature content creator. Aesthetic elements are the subject of the photographer. I find it very useful to explain this in more detail, in order to connect our NEAR community members with the natural and real world.

Two photographic subjects or destinations can be identified:

1. At the level of the stand or reforestation plot, that is, the general appearance or physiognomy of the vegetation. This can be a monospecific crop (a single planted species, i.e., monoculture) or multispecific (several species of plants, typical in tropical regions). This is an assemblage or set of plants used in reforestation, the ecological community as a unit.

2. At the level of the planted species. Each planted species has its own characteristic attributes that can be recorded.

If we base ourselves on the temporary changes in the development and growth of trees, we can distinguish according to the subject: phenology of the vegetation and phenology of the species.

But, What is Phenology?
It is a discipline of ecology that records and studies the vegetative and reproductive changes of plant species, animals or ecological communities as a function of climate and time. Applied to plants, the changes in age or size, from the germination of the seeds, through the seedlings to the mature tree. Branching patterns. The loss and gain of new foliage, depending on whether the species is perennial, seasonal, or both. The appearance and aspect of the flowers, the fruits or the dispersion of the seeds. Seed germination and relay generation.

What is the aesthetic value of those attributes?
Take pictures of all of that as the trees grow and mature. The photographic record of these changes generates beautiful aesthetic motifs with an abundance of colors, not just the green of the foliage. As important as the aesthetic value that the photographer/artist tries to record, so is the recording of those attributes. Additional artistic value can be added by combining with how fauna (insects, birds, and mammals) appear or respond to these changes in growth and development. It is interesting to see the pollinators of flowers and the dispersers of fruits and seeds. Even other aids that come from the creativity and imagination of the photographer (at dawn, at dusk, during the day, at night, in the light of the moon, with the moon in the background, landscapes in the background, etc). All these ideas help to explore the evolution of the reforestation program towards success, added to great enthusiasm and joy in our lives.

@schnageler

NFT structure guidance. Can NFTs to be updated as trees grow and new photographs are taken? Or will we need to send individual NFTs to an owner’s wallet each time a new photograph is taken? We need technical and strategic advice on these and other NFT-related questions.

@marianeu

here we are talking about giving someone 150 USD to do what? Write down all the things I told you in the last call? If you are thinking about minting the NFTs in another place, not mintbase, then this does not fit into MintbaseDAO interests. If you are minting on Mintbase, would these 15N be given to one of our communication team members? Or to someone that talks to us and puts the information in a document?

@marianeu

sadly changable NFTs are not yet a reality on mintbase.

I have consulted this with our NFT experts from NEAR Venezuela (@Jloc @Mineriavirtual). A single NFT already created cannot be altered, it cannot be updated by changing the photo, for example, tree by seedling. A single NFT does not have to change. Instead, what is possible is a collection or series of NFT’s, each with a photo displaying a different attribute per subject. The number of elements in the series could be previously set based on unique attributes to be recorded, or could be variable to adjust freely to each subject as long-term reforestation progresses (we are talking about days, months, years, decades, as units of time).

When each NFT is created, within the blockchain smart contract it must be recorded how the elements of the series are related in time progression. This depends on the minimum metadata required by the system used (if it is MintBase or another known one). If the information to be recorded for each series or its elements exceeds the capacity of these metadata, then we are already talking about another platform that does not exist. Therefore developers are needed on their own NEAR blockchain to make it a reality. That is, a previous and novel development of the smart contract could be required for each photographic series, which includes in the metadata, for example:

1. Name of the reforestation project
2. Location/georeferencing
3. Date of photographic taking (or timestamp)
4. Type of photographic subject (stand or plant species)
5. Subject photographed (according to its biology, phenology, art)

This would have the objective of connecting the photographs, NFT’s or elements of the series with each other and giving them meaning. It could also be a text file containing this data and the hashes of each element of the NFT series. That’s what’s appropriate for a serial NFT, how trees grow over time [example: ]

How ​​to make this idea self-sustaining?

1. Making that for the value given to the NFT’s created, the photographer obtains rewards and can reinvest them in obtaining more photographs and more NFT’s.
2. Engaging validators to maintain metadata quality and getting rewarded for this.
3. Making other consumers (scientists, environmentalists, citizens, etc.) acquire/buy the NTF’s and the valuable information they contain.

This sounds like a prototype or hybrid project between Open Forest Protocol (using MRV tools: “measurement, reporting, and verification”) and a global phenological network on the blockchain, which I believe does not yet exist.

While we sequester atmospheric carbon in the tissues of trees, as a climate change mitigation measure, the climate is monitored in response to changes in temperature due to the effect of atmospheric CO2 levels. This is what climate scientists and ecologists are doing right now.

We keep in touch, greetings