Protecting tropical rainforests

Aluxes is a model of land stewardship focused on conservation and regeneration of tropical rainforests.

The system is based on 8 immediate actions to take in order to regenerate and conserve land.

These immediate actions correspond to 8 business units that generate capital value and set the basis for a bioregional conservation economy.

Through a cooperative model of local ownership and empowerment, Aluxes will promote regenerative ecosystems and economies within local communities.

The top priority of the Aluxes Project is to protect biodiversity of tropical rainforests and its bioregional corridors.

Central American jungles

Considered one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, with estimates suggesting that it may contain as many as 10% of all known species of plants and animals. This particular region is also home to many Maya communities who have lived in harmony with the environment for thousands of years.

After the Amazon, the Mesoamerican Maya Rainforest is the largest remaining tropical rainforest in the Americas with 5.4 million hectare rainforests that stretch across Belize, northern Guatemala and the Yucatán peninsula.

It is fed by the biggest natural reserves in the region which provide over the 80% of its biodiversity.

The Maya people

For thousands of years, the Maya jungle, in all its great diversity, has been an ally to the mayan people, providing every element to sustain its population in a rich and complete way.

Most of the Maya jungle territory is owned by local communities in the form of “ejidos” which is an area of communal land used for agriculture in which community members have usufruct (usable) rights rather than "traditional" ownership rights to land.

Most of these communities are focused on traditional sustainable economic activities and have not changed for thousands of years.

They are the inheritors of the ancient maya knowledge and territory and a vital partner for any project to thrive in this region.

Aluxes will work hand by hand with the local Maya people empowering the importance of their role in maximizing positive impact in the region.

Problem

The region is facing increasing pressures from commercial agriculture.

Deforestation and monocropping practices pose a significant threat to tropical rainforests, leading to the loss of biodiversity and ecological imbalance.

150k hectares of deforestation and 300k hectares of forest degradation annually.

Soil is being poisoned with agrochemicals, reducing the proliferation of biodiversity and increasing erosion - Causing floods that unbalance the ecosystem.

Local landowners often have limited options to make money from conserved land, which can lead to further deforestation or unsustainable practices.

Solution

We have learned that in order to create positive impact in tropical rainforests we must regenerate degraded land and provide economical value to conserved land.

This is why we designed a system based on 8 immediate actions:

Each immediate action serves two purposes: ✅ Environmental and social positive impact. ✅ Generate economical value in the system.

The current economic incentives are structured in a way to encourage the local users to deforest and degrade their lands to reap a short term economic benefit. By educating and empowering the local communities with the Aluxes 8 immediate action system, we will be able to provide new economic incentives to foster greater long term benefits for the local ecosystem and the economy for the foreseeable future

🐛 Soil Regeneration

Planning for ecological succession.

Degradation of land brings chaos. We need to regenerate the soil ecosystems as fast as possible and with that we need to change drastically how land is cultivated.

Syntropic agroforestry systems create a sustainable farming approach that continuously improves soil conditions, promotes nutrient cycling, and enhances the overall fertility and resilience of the soil.

💰 These systems increase productivity, provide diversified income streams, and reduce input costs.

Local species like vanilla, cacao, avocado, corn, zapote, ramón, caoba, mamey and tzalam have strong viability in the local organic market.

🐝 Pollination

Bees pollinate over 40% of tropical rainforests.

Stingless bees known as Melipona are native from Central America. They are excellent pollinators of a wide variety of plants, including many of the fruit trees and flowering plants found in the jungle.

The ancient Maya people considered these stingless bees an integral part of social and religious life. At that time, stingless bees provided a vital small-scale economy, due to their honey (used as medicine, as sweetener and for mead), their waxes, and resins.

Meliponiculture has been practiced since then, creating a unique relationship between humans and bees. Where bees ensure its safety from predators and get their colonies multiplied, and humans benefit from the variety of their products.

Beekeeping with stingless bees has sharply declined in the last half century.

Strengthening this ancient practice in the region, will ensure successful pollination of tropical rainforests.

💰 Stingless bee products (honey, propolis and wax) hold a niche market value due to their unique qualities and limited availability.

💰 The bioactivity of stingless bee products is diverse and exhibits great potential as an antimicrobial agent or in various diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancers, oral problems and wound healing.

🐆 Biodiversity Management

Every unit in a living ecosystem has an important value.

Biodiversity management involves restoring, protecting, conserving, and enhancing the variety of biological resources.

We want to identify the roles of all life forms in the jungle. Create wildlife management programs to monitor, protect and reintegrate species.

Landscape-scale conservation is by far the most cost-effective means of preserving biodiversity; some species can fall through cracks in protection and decline to the point that they need targeted management to prevent extinction.

The journey of rewilder is a complex and delicate process.

That is why we want to partner with biologists and local experts to create sanctuaries where we can ensure that the natural process is heading the right way.

💰 Sustainable natural products can be positioned in a premium organic market.

💰 Sanctuaries are profitable as a sustainable low-scale ecotourism activity

🌴 Conservation

The currency of nature is soil.

Tropical rainforests produce 20% to 40% of oxygen in our world. And cover only 2% to 6% of earth’s land surface.

We are aware that the first action to take is to conserve untouched land for the longest time possible.

This action will allow us to secure existing ecosystems and potentialize them.

There is an urgent need to increase financing for biodiversity, given its intrinsic value, its critical role for indigenous people and local communities, for national economies, for food security and for its contribution to addressing climate goals.

We will develop a guideline to monitor indicators like soil organic matter, structure, species counter, humidity, temperature, biodiversity and wildlife transit to have a constant proof of conservation.

💰 We will evaluate which methodology of quantifying biodiversity gains to use in order to apply for Biodiversity Credits.

💰 Conserved areas are profitable a sustainable low-scale ecotourism activities.

🐍 Maya medicine & Research

The jungle is the biggest pharmacy in the world.

Tropical rainforests, with its rich biodiversity of plant and animal species, has the potential to become a pharmacy due to the vast array of natural compounds and resources it offers.

Over 25% of our modern medicines originate from tropical rainforest plants and we have only learned how to use 1% of these plants.

There are approximately 29 native plant species reported by different maya groups in Mesoamerica with demonstrated pharmacological evidence for central nervous system disorders

With the devastation of ecosystems, the access to traditional medicinal plants has been dropping drastically, and with it, its ancient knowledge.

Respecting the rights and knowledge of indigenous communities and ensuring sustainable practices we will empower Mayan medicine and its valuable contributions to natural pharma.

💰 Herbal medicine market is expeced to reach 347B by 2029

♻️ Cleaning

Trash is a bad human habit.

Unfortunately irregular growth and bad management in local communities leads to big trash deposits in natural areas.

Good thing is that there are so many ways to deal with trash, our mission is to clean the natural areas and transform trash into products such as gasoline, gas, energy and recycled products.

We will partner with other established and upcoming projects that are opening the path of trash transformation and management.

While addressing the problem onsite by cleaning and transforming we will tackle the problem with education

Waste management capacitation to local communities guiding them through the process of councious consumption, selection and transformation.

💰 Plastic recycled and transformed products

🎨 Art & Culture

Art empowers individuals

Art is a transformative experience that enriches individuals and communities in many ways.

It can help people connect with their creativity, communicate with others, develop valuable skills, and create positive social impact

Understanding the sacred connection between natural elements and human creativity we will foster a movement of local artists that give voice to tropical rainforests.

💰 Natural ending cycles offer a wide variety of organic residuals that could be used to produce profitable art pieces.

💰 Artistic expositions around the world featuring local artists with local products

📚 Educational Ecotourism

The biggest pillar of change is education

Through integral educational spaces, we want to ensure that local communities are aware of the multiple benefits that a healthy ecosystem can have.

The best way to understand a lesson is through an educational experience.

We want to teach the world how abundant are rainforest ecosystems and how much they contribute to sustaining human life.

Impact is built by courage and perseverance. Future is shaped by education.

💰 Educational experiences on site through the 8 immediate actions to learn the process of regenerating tropical rainforests.

What is the plan?

The land

There are two types of land:

Each type of land will have a different approach regarding which of the 8 immediate actions will take place in the beginning.

The strategy of operation will be to lease land to local landowners for 15-30yrs in order to operate and set the basis of regenerative economy for the landowners to adopt once the leasing is finished.

The system, the module and its upgrades.

We have designed a system to cover the 8 immediate actions with one module and three upgrades.

Its modularity and adaptability will facilitate to scale it and replicate it through the rainforest vast diversity of landtypes.

Yum Ka'ax module.

This module is a rainwater collector autonomous solarpowered dripping irrigation system. It can be used anywhere with very little mantainance and fully automatized for operative efficiency.

It will be implemented mostly on degraded land to sustain agroforestry systems.

• Water storage
• Irriggation system
• Pressure pump
• Timer
• Battery
• Charge control
• Solar panels

🐛 Soil Regeneration 🐍 Maya medicine & Research

Kab Upgrade

This module is exclusively for stingless beekeeping practices. Designed for rescued hives and technified hives.

Technified hives are used to expand colonies and will be re-designed to monitor productivity and a clean efficient honey extraction.

This upgrade will be implemented in both agroforestry systems to enhance pollination and in conserved areas to continue pollinating the jungle.

🐝 Pollination

Kaan Upgrade

A web of interconnected modules to process and collect the vast array of data that a rainforest brings. Designed to be simple, resistent, autonomous, adaptable and capable of collecting data.

• 360 Wifi camera
• Temperature sensor
• Movement sensor
• Nightvision camera
• Humidity sensor
• Microphone
• Satellite Wifi
• Battery
• Charge control
• Solar Panels

This upgrade will be implemented in conserved areas to monitor the cycles of nature.

🌴 Conservation 🐆 Biodiversity Management

Nah Upgrade

This upgrade is to accomodate low-scale human activity in the jungle, it is designed to have a reduced footprint, non-invasive, self sustainable and adaptable to different types of land.

The number of required areas will depend on the land use.

• Water storage
• Pressure pump
• Bedroom + Bathroom
• Commons area
• Dining module
• Kitchen module
• Battery
• Charge control
• Solar panels
• Evapo-transpiration sewage system
• Compost area

This upgrade will be accessed by small groups of people for a 3-5 day stance.

📚 Educational ecotourism 🎨 Art & Culture ♻️ Transformation

What is done?

• [x] Approached to the local "ejido" community committee to explain the project in order to touch base
• [x] Created a webpage Aluxes (mobile), community in X @aluxeprojects to create awareness on the project
• [x] Approached with a local family of landowners to test the module
• [x] Secured a private landowner to test the module in 1 Hectare and approved funding to implement the module in this land
• [x] Started collecting different fruit trees (mango, papaya, banana, avocado, ramón to plant in the first agroforestry system
• [x] Approached local agroforestry experts, local stingless beekeepers and local healers to receive guidance.

What is next?

• [ ] Complete the design of the module and its upgrades
• [ ] Install the Yum Ka'ax module in the private landowner land for testing
• [ ] Install the Yum Ka'ax module with one Kab upgrade in the local landowner land for testing
• [ ] Launch Jungle spaces for expert guidance on @aluxeprojects account
• [ ] Website update and integrate responsiveness to Desktop version.
• [ ] Design the NFT funding system

The team

@syntropicregen (founder, strategist, designer, community manager, developer)

Allan (co-founder, local connections, local operations, strategist, investor)

Gabriel (Maya local landowner, beekeeper)

Brian (investor, strategist, private landowner)

What is the #GG19 grant for?

The donations will be used to fund a module for the local family landowner so they can start creating positive impact and generate economic value by regenerating their land. This donation will serve as the second test module installed in the region and will help us monitor and evaluate the 8 immediate actions faster.

How is the future looking like?

Bioregional conservation economy

Our goal is to keep the Mesoamerican biological corridor connected and fully productive in a sustainable way for the benefit of future biotic generations.

The project will seek to scale up in alliance with local communities to increase its territory and grow an economy based on a large diversity of jungle products and services.

☁️ Some dreams

• Bioregional DAO incorporated by regional Sub-DAOs with a token backed by its economy.
• NFT project that will bring holders to the project with economic and experience rewards.
• Educational gamefied metaverse using the installed cameras and sensors on the jungle.
• Tokenized process honey sub-economy.
• Complete guide to regenerate tropical rainforests that will provide educational materials with a unique storytelling inspired in Maya cosmovision for the local communities and for the world.

If you are reading this YOU ARE SO EARLY!

We are confident that, once the Aluxe project is consolidated, it will drastically reduce deforestation (and thus GHG emissions) on a bigger scale.

Solidifying the conservation of the corridor. By involving local communities and economically activating the region responsibly, this corridor of protection will ensure the natural flow of species and thriving ecosystems will remain connected in the Mayan Rainforest.

We can expand the solution to the rest of Central America, and save a big part of tropical rainforests and with it the heritage of the Maya tropical rainforests.

✨Thank you for reading✨