These 25 Protected Animals Created By NFT To Help Raise Conservation Funds

Illustration of a leopard. (Wikimedia Commons/Bernard DUPONT)

JAKARTA - Tlalamba, a four-year-old leopard, has accomplished a lot in his short life. She's her mother's longtime territory queen, gave birth to two cubs and, by far, is the most sought after animal among buyers of new projects selling non-fungible tokens (NFT) to raise money for conservation.

NFT is a form of crypto asset that exploded in popularity last year. All kinds of digital objects, from art to videos and even tweets, can be bought and sold as NFT, which uses a unique digital signature to ensure the object is unique.

Now, WildEarth, a wildlife streaming service, is printing NFTs associated with 25 leading animals like Tlalamba at the Djuma Game Reserve in South Africa.

Shoppers will get special access to images, videos and information about creatures like Tlalamba through the app, where they can also talk to other NFT owners. They even got voting rights on behalf of the Tlalamba children, and got the first chance for their future NFT.

Forty percent of the proceeds go to animal habitat keepers, with around $16,000 for the Djuma Reserve through more than 1,000 sales so far. Each NFT currently costs around 200 US dollars.

Graham Wallington, co-founder of WildEarth said the venture allows enthusiasts to gain a sense of caring for the animals they love, while also offering a potential, reliable and low-impact new revenue stream for conservation globally.

"If we don't create the necessary economic incentives to conserve wildlife, it won't happen," he said, adding that current conservation revenues, i.e. through hunting and tourism, animals have been harmed, their habitats or have proven to be massively unreliable over the years. pandemic, as reported by Reuters on February 4.

"We have to find solutions that allow people at home to conserve nature in the wild," he said.

Meanwhile, the owner of the Djuma nature reserve, Jurie Moolman, said that even tourism can be dangerous if the nature reserve accommodates too many people, he added. Djuma has closed its commercial lodges.

"We're trying to tread lightly on the earth," he continued, adding initiatives like WildEarth and the NFT program allow them to continue to share Djumas with people everywhere, while also preserving their habitat.

However, NFTs need to be traded on the secondary market, providing ongoing royalties to habitat maintainers, in order for them to become a reliable revenue stream. Whether there is a request for it, is not known.

Wallington remains focused on expansion, hoping to register a reserve in the south of the country, home to Kenya's next Maasai Mara penguin colony.

"We have plans at this scale, in our roadmap, to all conservation areas around the world," he said.