Aluxes

Tropical Rainforests matter.

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

The system is based on four sectors that cover immediate actions to take in order to generate capital value.

This will set the basis of a bioregional economy offering a wide variety of products and services. Engaging the local communities with harmonious management of their lands.

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.

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.

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

Solution

By guiding and empowering the local communities with the Aluxes 4 sector 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

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 4 sectors that cover 8 immediate actions:

There are 8 actions that serve two puposes:

✅ Environmental and social positive impact. ✅ Generate economical value in the system.

The Sectors

The four sectors—Luum, Kab, Chaan, and Nah—comprehensively address the essential components of tropical rainforest restoration.

Luum - Soil Regeneration focuses on revitalizing the foundation of ecosystems, ensuring fertile ground for plant growth and carbon sequestration.

Kab - Pollination secures the vital role of pollinators in sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.

Chaan - Conservation safeguards critical habitats and biodiversity hotspots, mitigating threats like deforestation and habitat fragmentation.

Nah - Education empowers local communities with knowledge and skills, fostering a culture of conservation and sustainable land management.

Together, these sectors form a holistic approach that not only restores tropical rainforests but also engages stakeholders and ensures the long-term sustainability of our efforts.

LUUM

The soil regeneration sector is at the forefront of agricultural innovation, developing self-sufficient irrigation systems for crops and pioneering the use of soil sciences and agroforestry to revitalize and restore the fertility of degraded soils, ultimately blending agricultural productivity with ecological renewal.

We understand that indigenous communities have long held intimate relationships with the land, inheriting invaluable insights and practices passed down through generations. Therefore, our soil regeneration efforts are grounded in honoring and incorporating these ancestral traditions into our restoration practices.

💰 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.

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

KAB

The pollination sector is particularly vital as stingless bees, which pollinate over 45% of tropical rainforests.

Pollinator populations, including stingless bees, are important ensure the reproduction of a wide array of plant species and diverse floral habitats.

Meliponiculture has been practiced for thousands of years, 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.

💰 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.

CHAAN

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

Biodiversity management initiatives reintroduce native species, restore habitats and secure connectivity corridors in the bioregion. Guided by biodata monitoring, we gain insights into ecosystem health, we can identify key conservation priorities, track ecological trends, and evaluate the effectiveness of our interventions over time.

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

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

💰 Quantifying biodiversity gains to use in order to apply for eco-credits.

NAH

Nah sector addresses the dual needs of education in regeneration techniques and cultural expression by providing spaces for collaborative learning and creativity, fostering community bonds and social enrichment.

Our educational initiatives are complemented by a commitment to architectural techniques that align with local material-oriented and efficient, sustainable concepts. We want to respect local cultural heritage by minimizingg enviromental impact and promote economic resilience within communities.

💰 Plastic recycled and transformed products

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

💰 Artistic expositions featuring local artists with local products

💰 Educational experiences on site through the sectors to learn the process of regenerating tropical rainforests.

What is the plan?

We are planning to act in 3 main phases to achieve in a long term, an active bioregional economy

The Foundation

In the Foundation phase of our project, we will establish a testing ground to evaluate the effectiveness of the four sectors: Soil Regeneration, Conservation, Pollination, and Education. This phase will begin with a pilot project implemented on a 1-hectare plot of land within the tropical rainforest. Here, we will conduct controlled experiments and assessments to fine-tune our strategies and methodologies.

We have partnered with a local landowner to implement a pilot program "The Foundation" aimed at testing the four sectors and prove that this model can generate capital value using regenerative practices on his land.

The foundation is designed to continue until we have thoroughly documented each step of the process, ensuring that we have comprehensive data and insights to achieve modularity and scalability.

This entails rigorously recording and analyzing the outcomes, challenges, and lessons learned from implementing each sector of the project.

By meticulously documenting our methodologies, best practices, and success indicators, we can develop standardized protocols and guidelines that can be easily replicated and adapted in different contexts.

The seed

Building upon the success of the Foundation phase, the Seed phase focuses on scaling up our operations while maintaining modularity across the four sectors. We will expand our project to encompass a larger area of land, while still retaining the ability to adjust and optimize each sector independently.

This expansion allows us to bring the four-sector system to a broader scale, amplifying our impact and reaching a greater diversity of habitats and communities.

Through targeted outreach and engagement efforts, we will identify and engage with landowners who have land parcels in transition or underutilized areas that have the potential for restoration and conservation. By offering technical expertise, financial incentives, and access to resources, we aim to encourage these landowners to join the league and become partners in our shared mission of promoting ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation.

The Merge

In the Merge phase, we aim to a coordinated bioregional economy.

We will integrate Web3 coordination tools and technologies into our project to enhance collaboration, transparency, and accountability. This phase introduces a wide range of possibilities

Bioregional conservation economy

By integrating Web3 coordination into our project, we aim to enhance coordination among stakeholders, improve data transparency, and explore innovative funding mechanisms. This phase represents an evolution of our project towards a more decentralized and transparent model, leveraging emerging technologies to drive positive change in tropical rainforest conservation and regeneration efforts.

What is done?

• Design of layout for the foundation phase. (1 hectare)
• Basic infrastructure built (well, storage module)
• Design and construction of 16 stingless beehives (impact GG19)
• Migration of the first colony division to the new hive (Melipona beecheii)
• Migration of 3 more colonies including the rescue of a damaged underground hive
• Acquisition of 5 colonies from a local beekeeper (impact GG20)
• Team building certified course on stingless bee identification and management
• Build Kab Database where we will store all the information of our bees
• Team building certified course on creation of biodiversity management programs

Whats the current status?

• Design and prototype of the four sectors, on process.
• Populate 16 beehives, on process 8/16
• Bi-weekly Monitoring and reporting in Kab Database

What are the challenges?

Unfortunately with the arrival of hurricaine Beryl our site plans were postponed due to the loss of all our new plants. Heavy rain has been an obstacle to finish some operations on site (like topographic studies and complete species documentation) Also during rain season we are not allowed to open or manipulate any of the new bee colony divisions due to potential patogens entering the colonies. So tests on honey, and pollen, are postponed.

What is next?

• Land preparation and seeding for Luum sector (four agroforestry systems)
• Install the 16 populated beehives on site
• Design and fabrication of 100 bee-traps for sustainable collection of stingless bees
• Build 100 beehive boxes
• Acquisition of ecosystem monitoring gear to test Chan sector
• Full species documentation of site
• Launch Jungle spaces for expert guidance on @aluxeprojects account
• Website V2
• Premint

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)

Impact GG20 and what are GG21 funds for?

We are happy to tell that thanks to the funding received from our wonderful community we have bought 5 new stingless bee (Melipona beecheii) colony divisions from a local beekeeper.

We took the decision to buy this colonies because we saw an opportunity to expand our number of this endemic species from the Yucatán peninsula and to contribute in local stingless beekeeper families.

These new colonies will be divided in flowering season to have 10 potential colonies to fill the community funded beehive boxes.

Also we already migrated three new colonies to our community funded beehive boxes.

Two of them are Melipona beecheii divisions we did from our past rescued colinies.

One new colony of Plebeia mexica was found underground in an old box near a tree that broke the box and exposed the hive.

These bees are hard to find because of their size and their hidden hives on nature.

With this rescue we have now 3/19 species in our community funded "bee bank"

• Melipona beecheii
• Scaptotrigonna pectoralis
• Plebeia mexica

These new colonies will provide more pollination efforts to the zone, also we aim at collecting all the 19 species of the Bioregion to ensure its population, and hopefully divide them to mantain their existence and let them thrive!

Our next milestone on the GG Journey will follow the line of the pollination sector.

We have seen that it is a challenge to get all the bee species on the bioregion by buying existing colonies. Also that model is not sustainable if we want to scale our "bee-bank". So we came up with the idea of designing and setting 100 bee-traps on different sites to get a wider range of species diversity and quantity

With GG21 funds we will design and produce the most optimal and efficient bee-trap, hand by hand with our local stingless bee expert and based on our learnings from the stingless bee management course.

100 bee-traps to increase our bee-bank in 100+ colonies.

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 inheritage of the Maya tropical rainforests.

✨Thank you for reading✨