Bitcoin Nature Fund: Could Bitcoin Fix What Gold Destroyed in the Peruvian Amazon Forest?
Illegal gold mining is destroying the Peruvian Amazon forest.
Photo credit: Tomas Munita (source)
When I came across the Bitcoin Nature Fund on Twitter, I cartwheeled my way into their DMs. I was ecstatic to find other people who cared about both Bitcoin and the environment as much as I did.
After messaging the anonymous yet welcoming stranger behind the @BTCNatureFund Twitter handle, we finally got on a call one early Friday morning.
As it turned out, the person behind the Twitter account was Gilles Buck; a 47-year-old, super cool, Swiss teacher who happens to look like Ricky Martin! (Gilles had a chuckle when I said he resembled the 90’s Latin Pop sensation).
In the hour we shared together, I got to know Gilles’ story – from his childhood, to his career in teaching and his new desire to use bitcoin as an incentive to restore what illegal gold mining destroyed in the Peruvian Amazon forest.
It’s a unique and disruptive idea and one I HAD to share with you.
Gilles’ Love for Nature.
Despite his Swiss roots, Gilles sounds American. It’s a result of growing up in the United States. Although he’s also lived in Taiwan, Lebanon, Qatar and Korea, I’d venture to say Peru is the country closest to his heart. It’s there he met his wife, where his nine-year old son was born, and where he got his first dog – who has sadly passed away.
But, Peru is not where his love for nature began. That began a few decades ago:
“I was the kid running around… trying to grab trout with my bare hands in the streams. You know, I was always kind of the nature kid. It was never a doubt that I was gonna study biology in University. That was my area.” – Gilles Buck
True to his nature, Gilles went on to study BS, Biology; Environmental Studies at university. He even did a semester-long stint in Tanzania to study the local ecology.
Gilles always imagined he’d spend his life working in a lab (which he did for a little while). Instead, he spent 20 years teaching biology at international schools and loved it! Now he’s transitioning into principal role at a school in South Korea.
Interestingly enough, it was the fact of being a teacher that turned his attention to bitcoin. He wasn’t saving as much money as he hoped to on a teacher’s salary. So, he began researching ways to invest and build wealth and that’s how he accidentally landed on bitcoin.
At first, Gilles thought bitcoin was a scam but the more he studied money, macro economics, and investing in his spare time, the more his conviction for bitcoin grew to the point of creating a bitcoin-only fund in 2021, called “Bitcoin Nature Fund,” with a mission to rescue the natural world.
Bitcoin Nature Fund & Its First Project.
Like many of us, Gilles is taking a break before starting his new position. But unlike many of us, he’s taking a year-long sabbatical to build a bitcoin-only fund focused on conserving wildlife and habitat through land protection, restoration, re-wilding and research.
“The idea is to re-wild, to conserve land or to basically re-establish nature in its most pure way. So, take something that's degraded, let it be rehabilitated. Let the land recover. Wild. Overtime. That's the basic concept.
That could be a stream in a city. It could be, you know, a barren land next to a forest. It really could be anywhere. It could be really small in scale. It could be very large in scale. The whole point is you're taking land that's less than desirable and you're trying to improve it. That's really the purpose.” – Gilles Buck
Gilles is covering the bills for the fund from the savings he’s accumulated as a teacher.
But here’s the catch: he’ll pay out of pocket for five years. If the fund doesn’t succeed by then, he’ll shut it down. If it succeeds, then he’ll keep going and look into paying the staff (who are volunteers for now) without pulling bitcoin from the fund’s donations.
The fund’s first project is an audacious one: to restore land that was destroyed by illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon forest.
But in order to understand what types of plants and species can grow in this rehabilitated land, Gilles has to embark on a rigorous research phase. Fortunately, he’s got the support of volunteers and NGO’s on the ground.
“A former student of mine [is] working in the Puerto Maldonado area [in Peru], quite close to where the gold fields are. I'm in touch with her and what we're working on is trying to get a piece of the gold fields…
Then there's a local NGO, called Cincia, that works with Wake Forest University. They actually were trialing reforestation on those lands. They did experimentation [to see] which species it takes, what kinds of materials make them grow – because we’re talking about severely degraded land, right? I mean, this is basically sand pits with heavy metals. It's pure devastation. And so they did experiments trying to figure out what works.
And they work with another NGO, called Camino Verde, that provides the saplings (or young trees). And so in a sense, the infrastructure is there, because you know, if we can get to the land part sorted out, then we can tap knowledge from Cincia and the saplings from the other organization. And it's just a matter of organizing, you know, workers to get out there to start planting.” – Gilles Buck
Why start in the Peruvian Amazon forest though? Other than having a special place in Gilles’ heart, the answer will surprise you.
Illegal Gold Mining is Destroying the Peruvian Amazon Forest.
Puerto Maldonado, Peru is known as the gateway to the Amazon jungle. It’s located in the region of Madre de Dios and on the bank of Tambopata River, which is a tributary to the Amazon. A tributary is a river that flows into a larger body of water like a larger river or lake.
One one side of the Tambopata, there’s the pristine and lush forests of the Amazon basin; one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet. You know, the one we learn about in school?
On the other side, there’s the destruction of it by illegal gold mining; eating away at the river bank. It’s the complete destruction of even the possibility of a forest.
Gilles shares with me that this destruction has been caused by illegal gold miners who have taken over parts of the Peruvian Amazon, cleared up trees, dug pits and used hoses to turn soil into silt (or clay-like substance). Then, to draw the gold dust from the silt, miners inflict the fatal blow: infusing the ground with mercury.
Photo credit: Brett Gundlock for Nature (source)
Once the gold is pulled out of the silt, what gets left behind is land poisoned with mercury. When it rains, mercury makes its way into rivers where it bioaccumulates and biomagnifies. You know, where a small fish with a little mercury gets eaten by a bigger fish which now accumulates the mercury.
Over the last 20 years, around 3,000 tonnes of mercury have made its way into the rivers of the Peruvian Amazon [source], harming nearby residents, but more importantly, the Indigenous people and the wildlife who depend on fish as their main source of protein.
“Studies from 2015 showed that there's communities [of] 78% of people that have mercury levels that are multiples higher than the highest recommended levels.” – Gilles Buck
Photo credit: Mongabay (source)
Not only is the land poisoned by mercury, but the land and water are deficient in nutrients too.
Even if you were to stop mining gold and let nature ‘do its thing’ nothing could grow on this land again without intervention. That’s how sick the land is. Land that for thousands of years created the luscious, healthy, vibrant Amazon forest now cannot grow a single tree.
The Incentives Behind Illegal Gold Mining.
How could anyone willingly destroy the Amazon forest to this degree? Time and time again, the answer is simple, and comes down to money.
Gilles says Peruvians earn about $80 USD per day illegally mining gold (the last time he checked), which is more than they could earn in a month as a farmer. With many poverty-stricken Peruvians trying to put food on the table, it’s not surprising some of them would give in to the lure of money and join in the destruction of the Amazon forest.
Inevitably, illegal gold mining, along with poverty and corruption, create an environment for crime to thrive.
To protect their wealth-generating operations, illegal miners have created settlements – like a paramilitary – that remain a dangerous place even for authorities (like the police). Without oversight, these settlements have become a lawless zone with illicit activity ranging from money laundering, mass graves, human trafficking and child prostitution.
“It's similar kind of thing [to the gold rush]. You got a lot of young men going to work and having more money [than before]. It brings in prostitution, including underage. Some of these women are smuggled in…” – Gilles Buck
Gilles then shares the hopelessness park rangers feel in fighting the violence incited by illegal gold miners:
“When I talked to the [park] rangers there, they just kind of run through the mill and don't share that much. But one year, this ranger just had it. And he just, you know, he's just letting go. He's like:
‘I'm tired of this. I watch [illegal miners] come by and they point guns at us. We can’t do anything. Meanwhile, I have to fish bodies out of the river from time to time. And I don't get any support from anyone. We don't have guns.’
And he would just get frustrated and just let it out. And so that moment taught me a lot. And I think I hold on to that a lot. You know, here's this man, who would not make $80 a day as a park ranger, [who] cares about the environment, and it's something that he values living there and being there. You talk to a man like that and it really makes you appreciate the scale of the problem in a lot of ways.”
He adds:
“And I want to say [illegal miners are] not all bad people. I want to say that it's not all bad. But environmental degradation is all bad. And there is this really ugly human cost that comes with that.” – Gilles Buck
Like Gilles, I’m a believer that people are neither good nor bad. Instead, they act within the incentives set up in our society. In this case, the incentives and rewards lay within the realm of illegal gold mining.
That’s why poor farmers turn to illegal gold mining and are forced to devastate the Amazon forest. When incentives are high, it can blur judgement and alter behaviour, turning perfectly good human beings into bad actors.
In the end, we are human beings in pursuit of our and our families’ best interests. It’s that simple and that hard.
So, How Could Bitcoin Help?
You may be wondering, how does bitcoin fit into all this?
Well, if people are simply chasing incentives, could it be possible to incentivize a different type of behaviour; one that focuses on the rehabilitation of the Amazon forest and not the destruction of it? Gilles thinks it’s possible.
His hypothesis is simple: pay miners to plant trees instead so that they can leave behind the world of illegal gold mining. That makes sense… but why bitcoin specifically? Why not pay them in gold or in U.S. Dollars (USD)?
Let’s start with gold. For thousands of years, gold has been a great store of value. Everyone from peasants to kings have longed for gold which is why gold mining has been a lucrative business. But while gold is an attractive asset, it’s not useful day-to-day money. It’s hard to transport and difficult to divide into smaller amounts.
What about USD? The USD has been an attractive currency and has come to represent stability and strength – at least for now. USD works just fine in a physical, person-to-person transaction. But consider what happens when we try to facilitate hundreds of international, cross-border, micropayments from individuals wanting to support illegal gold miners-turned-tree-planters. Sending dollars abroad means bank delays, high fees, and approval requirements. It’s an outdated and painful process with simply too much cost and friction for individuals to participate in.
So, what can bitcoin offer?
Bitcoin, like gold, is scarce, durable, and difficult to produce. But bitcoin is also portable (you can carry it around because it’s digital), divisible (you can break it down into smaller parts), verifiable (you can prove it’s real), fungible (meaning 1 bitcoin will always equal 1 bitcoin) — which are all characteristics that make money good.
To add to that, bitcoin is censorship-resistant, which is a critical attribute since money like the USD is increasingly becoming more about surveillance and punishing dissident behaviour than about stimulating commerce.
So, if you introduce this seemingly superior type of money to illegal gold miners, could it be desirable enough to want to pursue it more than gold or USD? Could bitcoin be an incentive high enough to alter behaviour from devastating the Amazon forest to restoring it?
Most of the illegal miners are men who know very well what it’s like to be on the fringes of society and to be ostracized from financial opportunities. It’s quite possible bitcoin is a type of money that resonates with them. Why not give that a try?
When other options to incentivize and rehabilitate and save what is left of the Amazon forest have failed, wouldn’t paying miners in bitcoin be worth a shot?
Hold On: Isn’t Bitcoin Bad for the Environment & Contrary to Bitcoin Nature Fund’s Initiative?
I followed up with Gilles in an email to ask:
“What do you say to people who claim bitcoin is bad for the environment? To them, it may sound contradictory to the work you're doing with Bitcoin Nature Fund.”
His answer is antithetical to what the mainstream media says.
Bitcoin is a net positive for the environment because it is an energy regulator and stimulator of clean energy. We are seeing the development of geo, hydro, solar and wind energy sources to mine (or create) bitcoin. And, we’re seeing bitcoin mining in landfills where methane would’ve been released to the atmosphere but is not thanks to bitcoin mining.
Plus, the economics of energy actually pushes bitcoin miners to turn to renewable energies in an effort to keep costs down. (We all know how pricy energy gets.)
For now, I will stop here because bitcoin mining deserves a lot more attention and I’m hoping to tackle it soon for The Misfit. I’ll save this complex and nuanced topic for another time.
(Back to the story.)
What Sending Bitcoin to Illegal Gold Miners Could Look Like.
Assuming bitcoin as an incentive works, what would it look like to send bitcoin to miners on the ground? If you ask Gilles, it would be easy, fast, cheap and effective.
“Wouldn’t it be much easier if you put sats (satoshis, the smallest denomination of bitcoin, like cents to a dollar) right in their pockets? You directly control it with very little friction. And so you could really operate very lightly and build towards the future at the same time.” – Gilles Buck
Gilles then talks about the idea of displaying the miners’ bitcoin (or lightning) wallet addresses on Bitcoin Nature Fund’s website. Anyone, anywhere around the world, could view and donate sats to these wallet addresses.
*A miner’s bitcoin (or lightning) wallet address could look like a long and random string of numbers or a QR code. Then, Ana from Colombia, Ozlem from Turkey, and Shiori from Japan could send sats to Peruvian miners to reward them for planting trees instead of illegally mining gold.
Photo credit: NASA
The best part?
Sats would arrive at the miner’s wallet in seconds, at low cost, without an intermediary thanks to the “Lightning Network” (Lightning).
*If you’re new to bitcoin, Lightning is a payments layer applied on top of the Bitcoin network. Where the Bitcoin network focused on decentralization and security, the Lightning network focused on scalability and usability.
Lightning is the reason we can send bitcoin micropayments instantaneously and why you’re able to send the equivalent of cents at almost no cost. When people say it’s expensive to send bitcoin, they haven’t learned about Lightning yet. It’s actually pretty awesome and could end the days of bank delays, high fees, and approval requirements.
Just like every industry is being disrupted, it’s time our payments rail gets disrupted… and our ways of donating too.
One Final Word.
Stories like Gilles’ and the benevolent work he’s doing with Bitcoin Nature Fund makes me realize that, individually, we can potentially do a better job fixing global issues, donating money, and mobilizing resources more efficiently and quickly than any NGO or government thanks to financial tools like Bitcoin.
It’s not surprising that Gilles believes bitcoin is the best financial incentive and the best chance we have at saving what’s been ravaged of the Peruvian Amazon forest. To him, bitcoin isn’t a scary monster but a torch bearer in our darkest times.
At the end of our call, I ask Gilles if there’s anything that brings him hope about the future.
“I think bitcoin gives me hope in a lot of ways. I still see the goodness in people. You know, I've travelled all over the world. 88 plus countries. I've met people in the most desperate ways and in places I didn't belong. I've had all kinds of neat experiments and experiences.
The vast majority of people still want the right things and they have way more in common than divides them. So that gives me hope. Love is real. You know, that gives me hope. And so I'll go with love, bitcoin and people - the goodness of people.” – Gilles Buck
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To get in touch with Bitcoin Nature Fund:
Visit their website: https://bitcoinnaturefund.org/
Email Gilles: founder@bitcoinnaturefund.org (He’s always looking for volunteers/support)
Make a donation here: https://bitcoinnaturefund.org/make-a-donation
Listen to Gilles’ podcast here: Bitcoin, Conservation and Reducing Gold’s Monetary Premium with Gilles Buck
As always, feel free to leave a message for him in the comments section!