Barbara Moraes

The research investigates the transformation of forest conservation into a digital financial asset based on the flows of a non-fungible token (NFT). The NFT under analysis is traded on the Ethereum blockchain. It combines Real-World Asset tokenization and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) incentives for the conservation of a forest area located in Jacareacanga, Pará, a northern Brazilian state that occupies part of the Legal Amazon and is key to understand the advance of deforestation in the region. The study follows how the area is monitored in situ through local patrols, satellite images, and measurement and verification reports (MRV) and, subsequently, how it is registered and circulated as a financial asset on blockchain. The first stage of the research will be based on ethnographic fieldwork around the properties in Jacareacanga to follow how local agents articulate different definitions of forest in relation to sociotechnical devices. The next stage consists of ethnographic work on financial flows on blockchain, following the movements of wallets, holders’ profiles, and investor and company communities. This work aims to look at the various understandings, expertise, and temporalities at play in the production of the financialization of environmental conservation.