Introducing Eco-capitalism 2.0 🍃

TLDR

Ecofrontiers is a research and advocacy program to advance the potential of Web3 technologies in natural capital markets. Its first campaign and associated policy report, “New Frontiers in Eco-Capitalism,” will target environmental policy-makers, green funds, and environmental projects to improve the social conditions for natural capital production at scale.

Vision 🦚

The current natural capital asset market is centralized, ineffective, and obscure, failing to account for the real value of Nature. Ecofrontiers identifies this issue through multiple key areas:

• Lack of guidance in the policy sector: policy-makers need clear signals about Web3 environmental possibilities. The current negative press feeds political scapegoating of Web3.
• The green funding gap: without substantial public and private investment, we won’t be able to protect the biosphere in time. In the State of Finance for Nature 2022 report, the United Nations Environment Programme estimated that the world spends US$154 billion per year on nature-based solutions, less than half the predicted funding needed in 2025 and one-third of 2030. Most of this funding is wasted, going to green assets that fail-by-design.
• Projects in the environmental sector evaluating Web3 are overwhelmed by its myriad technical, social, and economic dimensions. They don’t know where to start and this overall slows the urgent ecological transition.

Solution 🌿

Ecofrontiers is a research and advocacy initiative that aims to redefine the institutional natural capital landscape by laying bare the critical capabilities that Web3 technologies possess that resolve these underlying deficiencies. With it, Ecofrontiers wishes to hand keys to understand and design new frameworks for natural capital production — decentralizing this power from the hands of today’s obscure organizations.

Ecofrontiers seeks to integrate the real value of Nature into economic systems through three strategic verticals:

• Research: the Ecofrontiers’ team is conducting in-depth and rigorous research on natural capital asset policy, production, and finance. The aim is to present the critical role that Web3 technologies have to play in creating sustainable and efficient markets, with a distinctly architectural lens. Because there lately has been an abundance of research attention on green finance, but a lack of awareness and education, Ecofrontiers aims to go beyond research with two additional verticals:
• Advocacy: Ecofrontiers aims to influence policy-makers and industry practitioners to promote the adoption of ethical and efficient frameworks for natural capital monetization. Unlike many Web3 initiatives, Ecofrontiers leverages traditional channels and methods, such as print campaigns, face-to-face lobbying, and higher academia, in order to get the message across.
• Education: Ecofrontiers’ work raises awareness and understanding of decentralized approaches to environmental economics and eco-capitalism among stakeholders in the public and private sectors.

Outputs 🌳

The grant work will result in concrete outputs:

• Publication of a Policy Report: Ecofrontiers will produce a detailed policy report that explores the concept of natural capital asset production, and the role that Web3 technologies has to play in it, by outlining a “Environmental Finance Stack” — i.e. the layering of different material or conceptual layers whose systemic action produce an exchangeable natural capital asset. This first policy report will be shared widely through various channels, including online platforms, academic institutions, conferences, and relevant industry publications.

What has been done so far 🌼

Ecofrontiers is an initiative led by Curve Labs. The team has a proven track of solid experiences in Web3 & Regenerative Finance, whether as researchers, project developers, or consultants.

Please consult the team’s One-Pager to learn more about their past work and engagement.

Please consult the team’s Bibliography to see a complete list of their past publications and public participations.

To consult the outline of Ecofrontiers’ first policy report, please consult the One-Pager.

Resources

🌐 Website ✒ Blog 🗒 One-Pager 🦜 Twitter