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", "questionId": 3, "encryptedAnswer": {"ciphertext": "FV+b0jHW6bVJ8S/msVLLlw7ST4hDtaG7Bo0JEH1rdlE=", "encryptedSymmetricKey": "c82df719b78c29c92e2a382843b8e44da26d262661425b2af5a9f334145f5e03c1c51876e93e6cdbc01e1e872bf3f9075189c46e29d561b7fecc5a24913206137c2476c247c03f8337a9a963c81050aa61db7654b40a49de233ed650329f9891bb9579847cff212a8e29946c0a1c1ce619aa4c8c16e18e7c981744f9a3867dcb0000000000000020a48737a752acd77f3784c7d2d86d80ab208ff9b59cbc9814c138a20b3b022b1a5bc32d5d63d06011b5fa789051e8eaaa"}}, {"type": "short-answer", "hidden": false, "question": "Link to your Public Group Chat (Discord or Telegram )", "questionId": 4}, {"type": "number", "answer": "96950", "hidden": false, "question": "Total prior funding for the project in USD", "questionId": 5}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "Grants by Funding Partners (NGOs and EU): 96.950,00 USD", "hidden": false, "question": "Please expand on how much funding you\u2019ve received from each funding source and when? (VC, grants by foundation, token sales, etc)", "questionId": 6}, {"type": "number", "answer": "96", "hidden": false, "question": "How old (in Months) is the project?", "questionId": 7}, {"type": "address", "hidden": true, "question": "If you participated in past grant rounds using a different project payout wallet address, please share it here:", "questionId": 8}, {"type": "number", "answer": "341", "hidden": false, "question": "Total team size", "questionId": 9}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "Christine Lain: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-tina-lain-22ba2a23/\nRuffin Mpanga: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruffin-mpanga-4a143095/\nTom Smeele: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-smeele-8ab597a5/\nRodrigo Zapata: \nLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zrr-global/\nX: Rodristream\n\n", "hidden": true, "question": "Profiles or socials of other main team members publicly associated with the project: ", "questionId": 10}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "Please read the project under \"Why is this a Climate Solution?\"", "hidden": false, "question": "Please explain how your project meets the Climate Solutions Round eligibility criteria. ", "questionId": 11}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "We have not.", "hidden": false, "question": "If you've received funding in past grant rounds, please share any new updates or milestones from the prior months. You can also include the challenges you've faced. ", "questionId": 12}, {"type": "checkbox", "answer": ["No"], "hidden": false, "question": "Have you used Hypercert, Deresy, Karma GAP or other impact tool for your project? ", "questionId": 13}, {"type": "paragraph", "hidden": false, "question": "Please share links to any tools you are using to track impact (Hypercerts, Deresy, Karma GAP).", "questionId": 14}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "We use elephants populations as tracked by patrol sightings. Once this project is implemented the quality and amount of these sightings will increase.", "hidden": false, "question": "How do you measure the impact of your project? Please provide examples and/or standard metrics. This might be used in future impact reports ", "questionId": 15}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "Rodrigo Zapata who is proposing this project on behalf with support of Forgotten Parks Foundation has also been involved in the ReFi Community Worldwide. More specifically the following communities and projects: W3bLab Amsterdam, Regens United Amsterdam, ReFi DAO, ReFi Portugal, CryptoCanal.", "hidden": false, "question": "Anything else you'd like to share about your project, previous work, or other project affiliations? Anything you'd like to add that may help in determining project eligibility?", "questionId": 16}, {"type": "checkbox", "answer": ["Yes"], "hidden": true, "question": "Would you like to opt-in to future messages from the Climate Coordination Network (CCN) for updates, information, and/or interviews? ", "questionId": 17}, {"type": "checkbox", "answer": ["Yes"], "hidden": true, "question": "Would you like to opt-in to us sharing your information with select third-parties for investment opportunities? ", "questionId": 18}, {"type": "multiple-choice", "answer": "Natural Systems CO2 Sequestration - Natural Based Solutions", "hidden": false, "question": "Which of these categories best represents your project? Choose from: ", "questionId": 19}, {"type": "checkbox", "answer": ["Africa"], "hidden": false, "question": "Location/Region where the project is located: Choose from: ", "questionId": 20}, {"type": "multiple-choice", "answer": "Africa", "hidden": false, "question": "Primary Location/Region where the project is making an impact: Choose from: ", "questionId": 21}, {"type": "short-answer", "answer": "Democratic Republic of Congo", "hidden": false, "question": "What specific Country or Countries are you making an impact in?", "questionId": 22}, {"type": "checkbox", "answer": ["Yes"], "hidden": true, "question": "Have you read and confirmed your grant abides by the Program General Eligibility Policy? https://gitcoin.notion.site/GG18-Eligibility-cb4a5754c56043d4b3ed34eddbac261c?pvs=4", "questionId": 23}, {"type": "checkbox", "answer": ["Yes"], "hidden": false, "question": "Would you like to be included in an additional 125k sub-round funded by Shell? All grantees must agree to a KYC process to be eligible to receive these funds. ", "questionId": 24}, {"type": "checkbox", "answer": ["No"], "hidden": false, "question": "Would you like to be included in an additional 50k sub-round funded by Celo? In order to qualify you must meet one of these eligibility criteria: Have an active deployment on the Celo blockchain or Have a clear public intention, commitment, or roadmap towards supporting Celo.  ", "questionId": 25}], "project": {"id": "0x0a0512c48ef50e06c0c2f0ad5cef5869e86ca9a9aab145320bdbe2efab00cce4", "title": "Save the Last Savanna Elephants of DRC: A Collaring Mission", "logoImg": "bafkreigy6fxhxegkt3qqvmmscj67axpggwqwhp44pt5mrlqtwbpsxb7iye", "metaPtr": {"pointer": "bafkreiasemurib46igcbvidnbtagn2iunzh5yo7xe34dlj77l5ar3skiya", "protocol": "undefined"}, "website": "https://forgottenparks.org/", "bannerImg": "bafkreidnpxzylcbt23ae3zorgrrir4rakykcribryjwdioaftuhwps26ni", "createdAt": 1714156778028, "credentials": {}, "description": "# Quick Info\n**Goal:** Fund collaring operations of last savanna elephants in DRC for its conservation.\n**Type:** Nature Based Solutions: Climate Keystone Species Conservation.\n**Location:** Upemba National Park (DRC).\n**Organization:** Forgotten Parks Foundation (Non-profit)\n[UPEMBA Documentary Trailer](https://vimeo.com/877285650)\n\n\n# The Project\n\n\nKatanga in the South of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was an elephant capital. Wildlife was abundant until the 1980s and then declined again in the 1990s and 2000s following political instability, wars and the resulting economic crisis and insecurity. Until the early 1990s, elephants migrated annually between Zambia and northwest of Lake Upemba, following the Lufira Valley. For years, it was believed that elephants had completely disappeared from the Katanga region. \n\nPilots were regularly flying the Katanga sky and never saw any elephants. However, information from remote villages reported the presence of these gentle giants and the damage they caused to crops. Since 2003, a local conservation organization in Katanga, named BAK, tried to locate these elephants, but it was only in July 2007 that they were able to confirm their presence with the first photos taken by one of the sector wardens of Upemba National Park (UNP). In October 2007, a first recognition flight took place and a herd of around 85 elephants was observed in the marshy areas north of the Lufira river close to Upemba National Park.\n\nTen years later and after extensive patrolling, rangers of Upemba National Park were able to observe around 150 elephants. This was the beginning of a race to try to protect the last population of the savanna elephants in the DRC. In April 2023, the existence of this last remaining pure savanna elephant population was confirmed during a visit of Chris Thouless (Elephant Crisis Fund).\n\n**This is a unique population, of national importance for the DRC, that needs to be protected. Collaring them will allow us to better understand and protect them from human pressure.**\n\n## Main Threats:\n- Insecurity: Armed militias roam around Upemba National Park (UNP) and often go inside the park to kill the elephants and sell the precious ivory on black markets.\n\n- Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC): Elephants cause damages to both crops and human settlements, with direct financial impact on community members that often result in retaliatory killing of elephants. This conflict is one of the major obstacles to the sustainable conservation of elephants in UNP.\n\n- Insufficient data collection and analysis: Understanding movement, distribution and abundance is key for the delivery of efficient conservation plans. Understanding the HEC issue is limited by the lack of systematic data collection; information is either not collected or not accurate.\n\nThis collaring mission will address these threats and challenges by establishing a system to monitor and track the elephants to protect them from human pressure and enable a pacific co-existence with the local communities.\n\n# Why is this a Climate Solution?\n\n\n## Elephants as Environmental Engineers\n\nElephants act as \"environmental engineers\" by creating disturbances in UNP Gallery Forests that promote carbon capture and storage. Through their feeding habits and movements, they knock over trees, trample vegetation, and create gaps in the forest canopy. This process, known as \"elephant gardening,\" stimulates the growth of dense understory vegetation that absorbs and stores more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. (1)\n\nThe increase in carbon storage caused by elephant activity is substantial. Biologists estimate that if the population of African elephants returned to its former population of 1.1 million species and recovered their historical range, it could increase carbon capture by an astonishing 13 metric tons per hectare. \n\nConsidering their former range of 2.2 million square kilometers, a recovery of these elephants could lead to carbon capture equivalent to more than 6,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per square kilometer. (2) (3)\n\n\n A study projected the future path of carbon service production by African forest elephants using a spatially-explicit demographic model. If elephants were protected, their carbon capture services would be worth an estimated $35.9 billion and store 377 million tons of carbon across tropical Africa. Conversely, the continued poaching of elephants would result in a loss of $10-14 billion worth of carbon services. (4)\n\n## Grassland Carbon Sequestration\n\nWhile the studies primarily focus on forest elephants, savannah elephants also play a role in carbon sequestration through their impact on grassland ecosystems. Grasslands store approximately one-third of the global terrestrial carbon stocks and can act as an important soil carbon sink. (5)\n\nElephants' grazing patterns, trampling, and disturbances can influence the processes of plant carbon inputs and microbial activity, contributing to soil carbon sequestration in grassland ecosystems.\n\nThe protection and conservation of elephants, both forest and savannah species, can significantly contribute to our efforts in mitigating climate change through their unique ability to promote carbon capture and sequestration in forest and grassland ecosystems.\n\n**References:**\n\n- Berzaghi, F., M. Longo, M. Ciais, et al. 2019. \"Carbon Stocks in Central African Forests Enhanced by Elephant Disturbance.\" Nature Geoscience 12:725\u201329. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0395-6\n- Chami, R., T. Cosimano, C. Fullenkamp, and S. Oztosun. 2019. \"Nature's Solution to Climate Change.\" Finance and Development 56 (4): 34\u201338. https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-solution-to-climate-change-chami.htm\n- Chami, R., C. Fullenkamp, F. Berzaghi, S. Espa\u00f1ol-Jim\u00e9nez, M. Marcondes, and J. Palazzo. 2020. \"On Valuing Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change: A Framework with Application to Elephants and Whales.\" Economic Research Initiatives at Duke Working Paper 297, Duke University. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3686168\n- Berzaghi, F., Chami, R., T. Cosimano, C. Fullenkamp. 2022. \u201cFinancing conservation by valuing carbon services produced by wild animals.\u201d  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119(22). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9295732/ \n- Bai Y, Cotrufo MF. Grassland soil carbon sequestration: Current understanding, challenges, and solutions. Science. 2022 Aug 5;377(6606):603-608. doi: 10.1126/science.abo2380. PMID: 35926033. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35926033/ \n\n\n# Financials\n\n\nFind in this [link](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eHgH1jF3UzBTV_3ZbdlXcqfWefV28FK3/view?usp=drive_link) the overview of the total costs of the collaring operation, we don\u2019t expect to fully fund it with this grant but a substantial contribution would make a great difference and enable us to engage more funders.\n\n\n# The Team\n\n\nChristine Lain: \nDirector FPF with 16 years of experience in conservation in Africa with a deep knowledge on african biodiversity gained at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).\nRuffin Mpanga\nHead of Biomonitoring with over 14 years of experience on wildlife conservation and veterinary studies.\nPlus Support Team.\nTom Smeele\nChief Financial Officer with 9 years of experience in sustainable finance, management and legal operations.\nRodrigo Zapata\nHead of Innovation with 4 years of experience in sustainability, impact and new technologies applied to conservation.\nManuel Weber\nEcological Consultant with 4 years of experience in african wildlife conservation with a MSc in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich and a major in Ecology.\n\n\n# The Partners\n\nAfrican Parks\nSave the Elephants\nElephant Crisis Fund\nInstitut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN)\nInternational Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)\nWildlife Conservation Network\nWildlife Conservation Society\n", "lastUpdated": 0, "projectTwitter": "ForgottenparksF"}, "recipient": "0x4CFA8B3A327104FB5A38529f89eC6D00DaC369B8"}}