The “Firewatch” NFT collective aims to fight environmental forest fires

By Christos Makridis

An annual average of 70,072 wildfires have burned 7 million acres since 2000 — more than double the average annual acreage burned in the 1990s, according to a recent Congressional Budget Office report. An NFT collection called Firewatch aims

“Average wildfire events in regions of the United States are up to four times larger, tripled in frequency, and more widespread in the 2000s than in the previous two decades … the most extreme fires are also larger, more common, and more likely to co-exist with other extreme fires », according to a recent study published in Science Advances.

In a groundbreaking step forward in using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for social good, YML, a digital innovation agency, just announced the launch of an NFT collection called Firewatch that aims to promote education, awareness and preventive behavior for to address the expansion of wildfires and environmental degradation in California. Each NFT corresponds to a parcel of land, priced anywhere from $100 to $100,000 based on the region.

All NFT proceeds from the first sale and 50% of the secondary sale will go to support One Tree Planted, a non-profit organization dedicated to global replanting. “One Tree Planted specifically sought out regional projects across California that focus on various wildfire prevention measures, ranging from forest fuel reduction to prescribed fire, replanting and biomass utilization, and impacting everything from biodiversity, to watersheds, to indigenous groups, ” said Ashish Toshniwal, CEO and founder of YML.

“When we were first contacted by FIREWATCH, I was just amazed at the out-of-the-box thinking, and that’s the kind of solutions we need. If we’re going to address the world’s climate problems, we have to think outside the box. We have to be creative, we have to innovate. And that’s exactly what FIREWATCH is doing,” said Kyleigh Hughes, California Project Manager at One Tree Planted.

By purchasing an NFT, holders will not only have digital art equivalent to the piece of land they themselves can care about, but also, and much more importantly, contribute to a new model of potential social philanthropy.

Nonprofits routinely struggle with transparency and accountability, but the use of NFTs here that correspond to specific packages embeds incentives from the inception of One Tree Planted to communicate how they use the funds and to demonstrate progress. All transactions will be recorded on the blockchain. “The transparency of a blockchain ledger gives us true insight into who is donating and how much, and provides accountability at the donation level,” said Ilia Karasin, staff architect at YML.

The NFT collection counters the criticism that blockchain is environmentally harmful. “It’s exciting to see Firewatch using NFTs at Solana to mobilize community and action around climate change,” said Amira Valliani, Policy Manager at Solana Foundation. “NFTs are becoming an increasingly popular way for communities to come together around common purpose. Solana’s advantages as an environmentally friendly low-cost chain make it an excellent home for projects like these,” said Valliani.

One of the main reasons behind environmental degradation is what economists refer to as the “tragedy of the commons”. Because the majority of wildfires occur on public lands, no individual has an incentive to ensure the health of the land. However, by assigning tokens to different plots of land, NFTs have the potential to create implicit property rights. “Double- and triple-counting of saved carbon is a major headache in this area. Therefore, verifiable, open-source tokens on carbon stored either via power plants that generate renewable energy sources or forests that provide carbon sinks can revolutionize climate finance,” says Shivaram Rajgopal, professor at Columbia Business School.

Such an approach to social philanthropy has the potential to unite more left-wing activists with conservatives, who may tend to be opposed to traditional environmentalism, due to its focus on decentralization and property rights.