Environment Impact and Environment Effect Governance

Fair Grade Forests, developed in 2017, provides private blockchain certification services for forests and indigenous sustainability. It has received a 43% grant from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for its focus on digital innovation in environmental and indigenous sectors. The initiative is registering intellectual properties in Papua New Guinea (starting with a trademark) and has built an ecosystem of world-class software, social, and environmental thought leaders, including experts in biodiversity monitoring. With 10,000 lines of open-source software code, Fair Grade Forests aligns with Source Pacifique, a locally owned regional startup founded in 2015, whose unrivaled technology roadmap includes intentional re-platforming in line with industry maturity (page 10).

Turning Indigenous into Actors Using Private Blockchain

Fair Grade Forests' private blockchain, built around the Creating Shared Value (CSV) model, empowers Indigenous communities and the forests they inhabit to thrive through Barter 2.0. This system enables historic landowners to exchange credits, such as Carbon or Fair Grade Forests tokens, for high-value commodities, ensuring both environmental sustainability—by providing immutable proof of deforestation and reforestation impacts—and social benefits, allowing self-determined compensation in the form of utilities, medical supplies, and essential services. By validating data within the community, this approach accelerates forest coverage and strengthens Indigenous participation in conservation efforts.

Advantages

The implementation of Fair Grade Forests’ private blockchain technology addresses existing challenges by providing a secure, immutable data system hosted on governed and approved private servers, reinforcing data credibility, enabling joint reporting, improving data quality, enforcing mutual agreements, and significantly reducing corruption risks. Stakeholders contributing to Creating Shared Value are rewarded via smart contracts and tokens, which self-execute transactions based on verified event data such as tree density, eliminating middlemen and ensuring transparent, automated bartering upon target fulfillment. Indigenous actors, mainly children, gather verification data using innovative tools like "FGFémon Go©" and high-altitude drones, ensuring absolute transparency in reward distribution and utilization monitoring. The intellectual property of Fair Grade Forests is rooted in Papua New Guinea, emerging from Source Pacifique, a locally owned startup with firsthand experience in forest and Indigenous sustainability. The implementation of Fair Grade Forests optimizes biodiversity efforts by reducing data collection costs, improving project performance, preventing errors, minimizing administrative overhead, and enhancing efficiency. Additionally, the system generates extensive Business Intelligence (BI) and statistics, enabling better decision-making and fostering stronger engagement and dialogue between stakeholders in corporate sustainability initiatives.

How it works

Here are three key steps outlining how Fair Grade Forests works:

Technology

Pre-agreed stakeholders contributing to Creating Shared Value (CSV) receive certificates via smart contracts, which self-execute transactions based on verified event data, such as aid utilization. These CSR/CSV certificates are distributed through blockchain, ensuring transparency while keeping NGOs, local governments, corporate headquarters, and lenders informed. Fair Grade Forests’ private blockchain records all actions, providing immutable data that enhances credibility, enables verification, improves data quality, enforces mutual agreements, and significantly reduces corruption risks. Indigenous communities provide intelligence on needs, and CSR/CSV goods and services are distributed in installments based on real-time verifiable data collected by the community, allowing stakeholders to track aid distribution and adjust as necessary (e.g., monitoring construction material supply based on project progress). The platform operates as a Private Blockchain as a Service (PBaaS), featuring user-friendly interfaces, low hardware requirements (affordable smart devices, smartpens), energy-efficient solutions (solar chargers), minimal telecommunication needs (SMS support), and tiered virtual storage, making it accessible and scalable.