- Launched alongside the World Wildlife Fund UAE, M.I.T Media Lab and AECOM
- O.N.E Amazon Impact Fund will initially deploy funds for projects in Colombia, with Goldman Sachs acting as structuring partner for O.N.E Amazon Impact Fund
- O.N.E Amazon will enable the improved preservation of 750m hectares, the total size of the Amazon biome, through the launch of its O.N.E Amazon Digital Asset Security, with each hectare backed by long-term land preservation agreements
- 85% of funds raised will be reinvested in sustainable infrastructure, and local and indigenous community projects as well as remunerating local landowners for preservation efforts
- Engaged with indigenous communities, private landowners, local and federal governments, financial markets, technology companies and academia to jointly ensure the Amazon is most highly valued in its natural state.
Dubai, UAE: O.N.E Amazon, a company focused on creating sustainable impact for the environment and investors by using next-generation technology to bring innovation to conservation, launched today at COP 28. It will enable investors from around the world to participate in the preservation of the 750 million-hectare Amazon biome.
Co-founded by entrepreneur and CEO Rodrigo Veloso, and chaired by former Blackrock Chief Investment Officer Peter Knez, O.N.E. Amazon has a bold ambition to better the lives of approximately 35 million men, women, and children who call the Amazon region home, by enabling the market to place a monetary value on the world’s largest and most critical rainforest.
It will achieve this through the issuance of a regulated O.N.E. Amazon Digital Asset Security. Each security will represent the perceived value of one hectare of biome in the Amazon rainforest, backed by a 30-year preservation agreement over that land, with an impressive long-term land preservation agreement for 50 million hectares of rainforest, an area larger than Spain, already secured.
The issuance of the O.N.E. Amazon Digital Asset Security will create a market mechanism to value the total biome of the Amazon rainforest and its collective impact on society while funding critical conservation and green projects. Proceeds from the purchase of the O.N.E Amazon Digital Asset Security will go into the O.N.E Amazon Impact Fund (O.A.I.F), which will create jobs for the local Amazonian communities and accelerate the energy transition of the countries through which the Amazon rainforest extends. The fund will invest in energy transition and circular economy projects, including infrastructure and clean energy generation projects, in addition to more localized community land preservation projects in the Amazon.
Investors will benefit from the potential capital appreciation of the security as the market values the positive environmental and social benefits of the rainforest’s biome. Given the finite size of the Amazon rainforest, the total number of securities will be restricted to 750 million, corresponding to the hectarage of the rainforest. Investors will also benefit from the dividend income from the O.A.I.F.
O.N.E. Amazon Chairman Peter Knez, former Chief Investment Officer of BlackRock said: “The Amazon rainforest and its rich and expansive biome should be valued in the trillions, given its immense and critical value globally, across all living species.
“It is the Earth’s most important natural resource, and for the first time, we’re enabling the market to value it as such, by turning it into an advanced digital asset security. We believe we can alleviate and reverse some of the shortcomings that have damaged the Amazon rainforest, uplifting and enabling communities while presenting investors and landowners with an opportunity for financial gain.”
O.N.E. Amazon CEO Rodrigo Veloso added: “Historically, immense pressure has been placed on often-underfunded local governments to fund the preservation of a huge and globally relevant land mass. Our vision is to relieve some of that pressure by offering a perpetual solution to saving the Amazon rainforest and to price it as one of the most valuable assets on the planet, in its preserved natural rainforest state.
“Amazonian landowners retain ownership of their land and benefit from the significant sums of money that will flow back into Amazon restoration and sustainable infrastructure. We’re proud to partner with Governments and local and indigenous communities, and collaborate with local NGOs to ensure all preservation efforts are targeted in the right places.”
To ensure full accountability and transparency, O.N.E Amazon is collaborating with MIT Media Lab, creating a framework to monitor every hectare that is tokenized against a Digital Asset Security, thus creating the world’s first Internet of Forest (IoF). This will provide a data-driven, real-time understanding of what’s happening in the Amazon biome.
Officially launched on 2 December 2023 at COP 28 in Dubai, the company expects to commence the first offering of its Digital Asset Security in Q1 2024.
The O.N.E Amazon Impact Fund is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and will initially focus on the funding of projects in Colombia.
Projects O.N.E Amazon expects to invest in include:
- Projects to reforest burned or degraded areas
- Local Amazonian-based sustainable and scalable private companies, unlocking opportunities for local and indigenous communities
- The creation of a marketplace that allows indigenous people, minorities and local artisans to access global markets
- Developing technological solutions like the Internet of Forests (IoF) and partnerships with M.I.T to help future-proof conservation efforts
