ixo Foundation, the non-profit open-source software development foundation that is building the ixo Blockchain for Impac’, has partnered with the Seneca Park Zoo Society to measure impact for global conservation projects and develop funding flows for zoos and aquariums.
The organisations’ first collaboration will take place in Madagascar, where Seneca Park Zoo Society is working with Stony Brook University to test the effectiveness of cutting-edge sensors in measuring ecosystem health within regenerated forests. These will be connected to the ixo ‘Blockchain for Impact’, with the ixo protocol acting as a secure record of data for impact claims.
“Our partnership with Seneca Park Zoo Society is a proof of concept, showing how all manner of conservation projects can record the impact they are having. By utilising the ixo Blockchain for Impact, they will be able to record evidence of change as Verified Impact Data, which demonstrates what counts for sustainable social, environmental and economic development,” says Dr Shaun Conway, founder and president of ixo Foundation Council.
The ixo protocol enables all measurable changes that have an impact to be transformed into Verified Impact Data with crypto-economic proof of Impact. It then generates Impact Tokens that can be traded through decentralised impact exchanges, creating new marketplaces for the Impact Economy.
The Seneca Park Zoo Society, which is based in upstate New York state, is the private, non-profit partner to Seneca Park Zoo, an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) in the US. Collectively, AZA zoos and aquariums invest more than $250 million annually in international conservation efforts.
“Working with the ixo Foundation will allow zoo stakeholders to see our conservation projects like never before. They will be able to observe progress and impact of our various programs through using an immutable blockchain as evidence of impact,” says Tom Snyder Director of Programming and Conservation Action at Seneca Park Zoo Society. “We will use this data to grow the fundraising and public education potential of zoos and aquariums, reinforcing the value of zoos to our communities. We look forward to our first collaboration in Madagascar, which will allow us to measure the positive impact of renewed forests through biodiversity measurements and increased human health using the ixo Blockchain for impact.”
Dr Patricia Wright, distinguished service professor at Stonybrook University and founder of Centre Val Bio in Madagascar, comments, “Our continued partnership with Seneca Park Zoo, and their partners like ixo Foundation will provide us with proof of the impact we collectively create by conserving the forests of Madagascar, and furthering projects around Ranomafana National Park and Centre ValBio.”
The utility of ixo has already been demonstrated in South Africa, as part of Amply. Amply is an application for ensuring that children receive preschool education and has been helping transition a government-subsidized ‘early childhood development program’ from paper-based service attendance claims processing to a fully automated digital claims management platform. As a proof of this concept, nearly 55,000 attendance records have been recorded across 77 schools since November 2016.