ARTEMIS - An electronic currency-based system for global wildlife conservation

All,

I am working to complete my white paper for this project. ARTEMIS seeks to address and aide in solving the timeless and global issue of wildlife conservation with an agnostic approach toward the quantifiable measure of success in this industry: results. This is not a non-profit. Non-profits, while occasionally successful in the short-term, do not offer a sustainable model for the benefit of wildlife or those of us who aim to preserve it for future generations. In short, the ARTEMIS project will utilize human behavior and the economic drivers that keep humans engaged long-term as opposed to constantly attempting to counteract human habits and behavior.

ARTEMIS will be FOR profit. It will incentivize performance measured in results. The system will require a sizeable amount of effort to put into place and make accessible to interested parties around the world. The goal is to build a network infrastructure that is self sustaining, enables and incentives people to grow wildlife populations and brings a greater awareness to people that philanthropy and government funding are not sustainable. A free market economy is.

I am looking for members of a technical development team. Please share this post with any interested parties and have them post a comment requesting contact. Below please find the introduction to the ARTEMIS white paper.

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1. Introduction

Wildlife numbers have been depleted significantly with the rapid population growth of humans over time for several reasons. The human needs for protein-based food, land for development of communities and numerous natural resources continue to drive wildlife populations downward toward unrecoverable levels. Irresponsible and unethical farming, ranching and hunting practices are devastating effects that also effect wildlife numbers significantly. One commonality, above all others, surrounds each of these human effects and stands out as the greatest single driver for the impact humans have on wildlife: economics.
Conservation of wildlife is approached in a number of different ways which often times is driven by emotion and political motivation as opposed to a quantifiable and economically sustainable model. Some groups feel that wildlife is a top priority and must be protected at all costs with charitable donations and taxes. Other groups feel that wildlife is a commodity asset owned by the entity which owns the water, air or ground that an animal has chosen as it’s habitat. There also exists a group of people who feel it is the duty of a government to manage its wildlife to the best of its ability and impart the necessary laws upon its citizens. There are several flaws in intent and execution that prohibit these groups from being as effective as long-term wildlife conservation requires. Often times the initiatives and efforts put forth are driven by emotions, political agendas, egos and similar myopic human tendencies. Meanwhile, the very treasures that people seek to preserve continue to slip away while each side places blame on another.
If there is one thing that all parties will admit to being guilty of, it is the failure to convince other parties of the same view. Most global wildlife protection groups would never accept hunting as a viable practice for wildlife conservation. They certainly would not admit to it for fear of losing their donor base. Most hunters would never accept photographic encounters in place of a traditional hunt for fear of losing their heritage, food source or livelihood. Both anti-hunting and pro-hunting groups share a passion for wildlife but largely struggle to convince the other of an alternative viewpoint on the approach to conservation. If conservation is truly the goal for both groups, then results above any other output should be used as the tool for measurement of success. Revenues from hunting and non-hunting business activities will viewed and incentivized agnostically within the Artemis network. Merit will be based on performance in economically driving growth in wildlife population numbers and security of individual species survival globally.
We propose a long-term sustainable system for global wildlife conservation and management that weighs the human variable heavily in its equation as humans are the greatest threat to wildlife worldwide. Utility of human behavior instead of attempting to counteract it will be the basis of all efforts to produce results measured in healthy individual species populations. The economic incentives and community-driven monetary rewards for results will be provided by a peer-to-peer payment network and merit system that will act as an ongoing motivator for humans to protect wildlife on an individual level without dependence on a large bureaucratic organization or government entity.