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2024 / 7 / 24

paramita, Inc.

Community Manager of SINRA

Eri Kawai

Natural Resources as Commons

Based on the Japanese Satoyama Concept

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Climate Change Issues

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Climate Change Issues → Damaging Biodiversity

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Natural Resources Considered as Liabilities

Decline in demand for timber, due to rise of imported timber
Cutting trees from a 1 ha forest, sawing and selling the lumber results in a loss of approximately 300,000 yen (which is compensated by taxes)
Low wages → shortage of workers
Aging forestry workers

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What Happens when Forests are not Properly Maintained?

Drought and lack of air circulation
Deterioration of soil environment (water, air, nutrients, fungi)
Increased disaster risk (fires, landslides etc.)
Ecosystems are disrupted
Biodiversity is damaged
Adequate nutrients do not reach the sea

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Serious Sea Conditions

Decreasing in fish catch and biodiversity
Decreasing in habitat for living creatures due to rocky-shore denudation（磯焼け）

Rise in sea water temperature
Deposit of mud washed out of the forest interrupt phytoplankton photosynthesis（植物プランクトンの光合成）
Sea urchins eating up seaweeds

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Concept of SATOYAMA（里山）

The harvested fields and forests surrounding them were termed satoyama
Satoyama natural resources were under the control of local communities.
Each settlement has developed its own detailed rules and regulations, called iriai, reflecting the specific natural environment and the diverse resource-use practices.
Satoyama land-management practices reflect a way of life that exists in balance with nature, and they play a significant role in maintaining local biodiversity.

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出典：https://www.dowa-ecoj.jp/column/2021/20210601.html

　　　https://www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db/en/R2-00783.html

ここまで日本の自然資源の現状や林業・漁業の課題について触れてきたが、本トークのタイトルにも入れた通り、ここで「里山」という自然資源を良いバランスで維持管理してきたコンセプトをご紹介する。

I have described the current state of Japan's natural resources and the challenges facing the forestry and fishery industries, but as I have included in the title of this talk, I would like to introduce here the concept of “satoyama,” where natural resources have been maintained and managed in a good balance.

The harvested fields and forests surrounding them were termed satoyama.
Satoyama natural resources were under the control of local communities.
Each settlement has developed its own detailed rules and regulations, called iriai, reflecting the specific natural environment and the diverse resource-use practices.
Satoyama land-management practices reflect a way of life that exists in balance with nature, and they play a significant role in maintaining local biodiversity.

In the past, satoyama were owned and maintained by the community, but this has become more difficult today due to the declining and aging population. However, studies have shown that satoyama, where there was a perfect balance between human and nature, had richer biodiversity than nature without human intervention. Therefore, while following the satoyama concept, we believe it is necessary to maintain the natural resources as a “commons” where people from outside the community can be involved. It is time to go beyond the concept of iriai and think about how to possess and maintain these resources.

かつては里山をコミュニティで所有し維持管理していたが、現代では人口減少と高齢化によりそれが難しくなった。しかし、人と自然のバランスが絶妙であった里山は、人の手が加わらない自然よりも生物多様性が豊かだったという研究結果もあるため、里山的コンセプトを踏襲しながらも、自然資源をコミュニティの中だけに閉じるのではなく、地域外の人も関わっていける”コモンズ”として維持していく必要があると考えている。入会という概念を超えた、所有と維持の方法を考えるべき時がきている。

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SINRA is aiming for…

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A balance between continually regenerated nature�& sustainably continued local communities

by using blockchain technology.

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Individuals’ Access to Carbon Credits

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Democratization of Emissions Trading → Individuals’ Access to Carbon Credits

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Why We Sell NFTs first?

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Because it really takes time and money to create carbon credits from natural resources.

It generally takes about 2-3 years from the planning phase to the generation of the credits, and during the monitoring phase, meeting the standards of credibility for J-Credit often requires laser surveying, which makes you to deploy drones, helicopters, or airplanes to project the lasers, typically resulting in significant costs of around 3,000 to 5,000 yen per hectare. As a result, a significant number of J-Credits based on natural resources in Japan remain undeveloped.

So, we've devised a solution for challenges by issuing unauthenticated carbon credit NFTs, selling the rights to claim future carbon credits before they are even generated. The revenue obtained from the NFTs is then utilized to conduct monitoring. This approach enables even local governments with limited financial resources to promote the creation of carbon credits, a crucial step in advancing sustainable practices.

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SINRA’s Regenerative NFT

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SINRA’s Generative Art（NFT）Transformation

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SINRA NFT

Retired SINRA NFT

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SINRA’s Fields

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Misakubo, Hamamatsu

Population: 2,600

Tsukigase, Nara

Population: 1,200

Owase, Mie�Population: 15,000

Tatsugo, Amami�Population: 6,000

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Partnership with Owase City, Mie pref

- Community Development with a Watershed View of the Forest, SATOYAMA, and the Sea

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Potential for Carbon Credit Generation in Owase City

Purchasing a small amount of J-credits generated from Owase City forests has started this year, and increase it in parallel with the expansion of the scope of forest management plan development.

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Local

Gov

Forest

Private

Forest

Planted Forest

Natural Forest

Planted Forest

Natural Forest

Total Area

Amount of Creation

2023

2024

2025

2026

2027

1,200ha

2,480ha

Planted Forest

(additional)

720tCO2

Creditable Area

800ha

1,227ha

400ha

650tCO2

0tCO2

2,720tCO2

600tCO2

0tCO2

4,720tCO2

550tCO2

0tCO2

6,504tCO2

550tCO2

1,600tCO2

6,504tCO2

520tCO2

3,200tCO2

1,650ha

7,400ha

0tCO2

800tCO2

12,000tCO2

800tCO2

24,000tCO2

7,400ha

3,000ha

*Only restricted natural forests are included in the scope of creation.

*The amount of creation may vary depending on the environment and management conditions.

amount already applied for

Creation Potential

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What We Do for Maintaining the Forest

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Water Vein Creation

Chacoal improving the soil

Biodiversity w/ Rich Ecosystem

Planting Deciduous Trees

1. This is the procedure of digging trenches in hardened ground to allow rainwater to infiltrate into the soil. Branches and stones are placed to prevent collapse of the soil. By allowing rainwater to infiltrate firmly into the soil, water containing minerals from the mountains will pour into rivers and the ocean without cutting away the topsoil, thus preserving a rich ecosystem.

2. Excess organic materials such as rotting logs, branches, and leaves in the forest are removed and carbonized. These become good quality soil improvement materials. Adding charcoal to the soil allows for carbon storage, and the charcoal itself becomes a home for microorganisms, and the mycelium loosens up the stiffened soil.

3. By bringing light into the forest and restoring the flow of water and wind, we will create an environment where diverse organisms from microorganisms to the top of the ecosystem can survive. Adding humans as part of this process and increasing the amount of life will create a "satoyama" that will lead to the happiness of the people living in the community.

4. By maintaining the mountains and planting trees appropriate to the land, we are creating a foundation that will nurture a wide variety of plants and animals over a period of 100 years. This is also an important means of protecting the region from disasters, and at the same time, an essential step toward enriching the ecosystem as a whole.

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Collaboration with Enterprises

Work with partners to create carbon offset options to sell to customers.�→Provide consumers with an experience that goes beyond ordinary product purchases using art and technology.
On June 5th, launched an “ethical travel” package that allows CO2-free travel in collaboration with a travel agency（小田急電鉄）.
Start selling products that can be delivered “CO2-free” together with delivery companies this October.

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SINRA

Partner

Enterprises

Consumers

Local

Government

Forests

Environmentally Conscious Products

＋�NFT�（can be held just by having an email address）

Normal product

+XXX yen (tentative)

Funds

Maintainance

Carbon

Credits

Maintain and regenerate forests and amplify biodiversity�（Many local government are unable to promote forest improvement due to lack of prospects for sales of carbon credits.）

Product Designs that Promote Climate Change Solutions with Existing Business Customers

Carbon

Credits

Carbon

Credits

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Carbon Offset Matching

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SINRA’s Generative Art（NFT）Transformation

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SINRA NFT

Retired SINRA NFT

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How Carbon Credit Sales are Used

Collaboration with Local Governments

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Reinvestment in the forest for proper restoration and maintenance
Common Fund: democratic utilization through decision-making by residents
Disaster-Ready community

Collaboration in terms of securing financial resources
Implementation of operations to fill the depletion of human resources
Corporate version of hometown tax

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SINRA’s Future Outlook

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Utilization of private forests
Watershed-based forestation for biodiversity credits and its quantitative evaluation
Carbon Offset Matching (matching between individuals who want to sell their carbon credits and companies)
Increase in the type of carbon credits; blue-carbon, biodiversity

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You can purchase NFTs

on our official website.

Join our Discord!

Thank you for listening!