Búan is Irish for permanence and what better name for a project that is built to support biodiversity in perpetuity using immutable blockchain rails. 

Now we have built it.

A system of contracts that form a scalable perpetual endowment for nature where funds staked in our Vault generate interest that goes to optimising for biodiversity. The principal remains untouched and only grows over time. More funding that generates more yield that funds more biodiversity gains. This is a truly regenerative biodiversity funding flywheel that can deliver landscape scale improvements. 

Behind it is a web of attestations and agreements that have been developed specifically for the different areas in the first epoch. The system is scalable across Ireland and fully backed by verifiable open source environmental research. In the future we may also expand to other high value nature areas across the world. 

In the first epoch Stewards from Glencree and Lugglass in Wicklow as well as Castlecove in Kerry are invited to attest to their identity, property ownership and condition. Stewards can also agree to area specific warranties relevant to their land to receive a greater stipend. Everything is tied together in our comprehensive Baseline Stewardship Agreement. After verification the signatories address is issued with a marker that has retrospective weightings and scoring influenced by the warranties they have attested and agreed to, as well as a .1 ETH signing bonus.

Over the years, yes years, that Búan has been cooking we tried a few different public goods funding platforms to help us get started. We raised about one all time high value worth of ETH (~5k USD), while others raised much more - our small team of one would not have developed in the same carefully considered way if we (ie Búan + I) had more funding success.

Right now we need some impact investors to step up and seed the Local Area Funding Pools directly in the first Epoch and contribute to other expenses like the signing bonus for Verified Stewards. In subsequent Epoch's we will hopefully see crypto natives staking their funds in the system we have built and locking funds in our Vault. 

The other part of our early funding model is to get some early Founding Members fees from local businesses signing up but we want demonstrate the system working with landowners signing the Baseline Stewardship Agreement and receiving their signing bonus as early as possible. 

Once verified stewards receive a stipend for joining us, each Warranty committed to will pay out per epoch. Epoch's go by the seasons so there are just a few per year and pay retrospectively where there has been a clear and enduring commitment to optimise for biodiversity over preceding years.

The sooner we can start the better. For more details of the initial epoch see the last section below.

Right so, let me introduce you to the communities we are setting up Local Area Funding Pools for in the first epoch, the biodiversity potential and some of the research we have done to establish the warranties we are choosing for these areas. In subsequent Epochs we want to have more input from the people living there but keeping things as straightforward as possible for now.

Castlecove known as An Siopa Dubh after its much renowned local pub in testament to the strength of the local community, is a lowland area between the Kenmare River Special Area of Conservation and an extension of the Killarney National Park called the McGillycuddy Reeks. The renowned Ring of Kerry that forms the start of the Wild Atlantic Way is right here and is also covered by a Dark Sky Reserve. 

The extremely high nature value of the area is confirmed by recordings of Marsh Fritillary butterfly, Ireland’s only red listed insect species. As a meta species it needs a network of suitable wetland breeding areas with Devil’s Bit Scabious to survive demonstrating that there is much here worth conserving. One of the properties we wrote about here was allowed to regenerate over thirty years with the old field boundaries from early 19ᵗʰ century maps now holding water as the drainage systems became happily blocked forming a variety of wetland habitats.

Stewards here will receive funding for continuing conservation and management of areas that are in the process of regenerating themselves. To support a great range of rare habitats and biodiversity with a particular focus on already recorded priority species that are indicative of certain habitats. Appropriate grazing and management of invasive species such as Gunnera, Rhododendron and more are to be incentivised here. 

The Glencree River Valley serves as a kind of gateway some of the most spectacular parts of the Wicklow Mountains National Park. With the The Glencree River serving as the main artery for nature that has the protection of being formerly proposed as a Natural Heritage Area for the sheer variety of habitats found along it as it reaches up to Lough Bray above and down into Brittas Bay through Powerscourt below. 

Many in the community have already recognised the value of their position here with thousands of trees being planted and Rewild Wicklow supporting a lot of great work being done. The Knockree Nature Reserve that sits in the middle of it all has undertaken a wide variety of improvements from establishing wildflower meadows to linear hedgerows, riparian planting and establishing a tree nursery to name a few. 

Establishing a Local Area Funding Pool for the Glencree Valley will help steward even more planting, deer management, linear biomass, bracken control and other measures. 

Lugglass is a hilly upland area with a number of brooks running down to it from the expansive blanket bog area above. This is an important hydrological area as the water here flows into the Kings River and into one of the main reservoirs providing Dublin with it’s drinking water. It’s also an area steeped in monastic heritage, trapsed with walking trails like St Kevins Way that take hikers from the monastic site of Glendalough to Blessington. The Irish place name An Log Lass translates to ‘the green hollow’ and contains townlands like Oakwood which give an idea of the potential nature value here. 

Indeed many of the river gulleys mentioned in the upper reaches that form part of the Wicklow Mountains National Park behind Lugglass have already been planted by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and their volunteers already. We hope our incentive structure will attract many more Stewards with brooks and rivers running down through their properties in the area to undertake similar initiatives, adopt more sustainable grazing practices, afforest their properties and tackle other issues.

Ultimately we want to generate a substantial amount of yield to keep seeding and expanding the Local Area Funding Pools. We will initially seed the pools directly so we do not need to wait for the yield to flow.

For the initial epoch we are looking for a very special pod of impact investors who will sponsor the funds needed to prove this system works with real incentives on the table.

In Ireland there is a longstanding tradition of meitheal where communities came together to tackle tasks just like these. We are not looking to fully fund actions at this stage, it's more of an inducement.