Blockchains, trees and political activism
Where Ecopolitics Meets Cryptopolitics
Meet Democracy Earth Ambassador Tristan Lecomte
The Democracy Earth Ambassadors Program began with the intention to enable all types of leaders to start a plurality of movements on top of a strong foundation of liquid democracy tools. Sometimes our Ambassadors operate within communities at the city level, sometimes at the neighbourhood level, sometimes at the global level. Rather than support any particular political party or cause, the aim is to make as much room as possible to foster, at the outset, a bottoms-up approach to the issues of the global commons, with diversity of viewpoint/application being a built-in feature of the program.
Being an open-source organization with collaboration as a core value foundational to our work can be quite challenging: there is much effort involved in creating the stable channels through which constructive and effective collaborations can actually take place. Working across multiple platforms, time zones and languages only adds to the complexity. But again and again, our efforts are rewarded with the opportunity to build things together with some of the most interesting, motivated, inspiring people in the world.
Tristan Lecomte is one of those individuals. His was a tree-lined path to becoming a world-class blockchain entrepreneur — literally: Tristan is a climate-change activist who has planted more than 10.000.000 trees, and uses distributed ledgers to track their impact. A pollinator of disruptive ideas for more than two decades, he eventually came to the realization that any real change necessarily passes by political activism — direct effort to create a reconfiguration of our political system. To Tristan it was the most natural next step in the world to take on the challenge to become an Ambassador for Democracy Earth Foundation.
Want to find out more about how blockchains intersect with trees and political activism? Check out our interview with him below.
DEF: Hi Tristan! Welcome aboard :) Tell us a little about yourself, your interests and hobbies…
Tristan L: First, I’d like to share with you that I am very happy and honored to join the Democracy Earth movement, which I find very innovative, disruptive and promising as I feel it allows us to imagine how we could govern our societies in the future, with more direct participation to advance common good in the World.
I would define myself as a serial social entrepreneur. It started in 1994 when as a student I founded an NGO doing rural projects in Nepal. From there, I founded several other social enterprises and NGOs. I feel engaging for Nature and others is the condition for genuine happiness and a meaningful life.
Apart from these activities, I have a small rice & coffee agroforestry farm in northern Thailand near Chiang Mai, where I have lived for 7 years now, with my partner and child. I test various agro-ecological practices like rice-ducking, agroforestry, self-sufficiency and permaculture. I would say my hobbies and passions in life are Nature, trees, friends and then sports which I practice with passion.
DEF: What has your professional career been so far, and when did you realize that blockchains could help planting more trees?
Tristan L: I founded Alter Eco in 1998, which became the leading organic and fairtrade brand in France, we developed it in the US and Australia as well. In 2008 I started PUR Projet, an organization helping companies to inset their climate footprint (inset = offset within their supply chains), by planting trees and developing agroforestry plantations. So far we have planted more than 10.000.000 trees!
From there I went on to become a founder of the International Platform for Insetting in 2013, a multi-stakeholder platform for which we developed a blockchain registry on the Ethereum blockchain in order to record and track the impact from tree planting. That’s how I came to discover the power of the blockchain and its multiple potential application… like for politics with Democracy Earth Foundation. When I went through the website and the white paper of Democracy Earth, I had a blast and thought “this movement is amazing, this is the future of politics!”.
Today, I am working on a new venture, a crypto-asset based on tree plantations to leverage more funding for the 150 plantations sites that we manage over 40 countries today with PUR Project. I think crypto-currencies can help to engage all stakeholders in society for tree planting, climate action and many other positive causes, by giving direct access to project funding and monitoring in a transparent way.
I am passionate about blockchain and how it can bring positive change in various sectors like supply chains, climate change and political governance.
DEF: This is a really interesting combination. How exactly do you see climate-change and liquid democracy intersect?
Tristan L: We often see carbon credits and offsetting just as “a right to pollute” or just an environmental stake, where you reduce your climate footprint by using renewables or mitigate it by planting trees, which would just be environmental rights. But Climate action stake is bigger than that. It is first and maybe before all a solidarity stake : citizens from poor economic countries are already severely hit by climate change extreme events, while they are the least responsible of climate change and the least in capacity to protect themselves and adapt to it. Climate change has its roots in the way citizens from rich countries consume and live their life. To resolve the equation, there is a need for a greater sense of community, of solidarity, compassion, arbitrage and reconciliation among all People by converging interests. To that end, Liquid Democracy and the capacity to create a World community with a unified governance thanks to the blockchain can be a leading vision and great source of hope for a common sustainable future together.
DEF: What have your activities been regarding political activism so far?
Tristan L: I have been a candidate only once in my life, for European Parliament elections in 1998, and while I liked this experience very much, I see myself more useful in the social entrepreneurship sector than in the traditional political one.
DEF: How did you learn about Democracy Earth Foundation and what do you intend to accomplish as an Ambassador?
Tristan L: I am very motivated to support global causes like climate action, forest and biodiversity protection, and world peace. I am inspired by Universal visions of Humanity. I have never been attached to being French as such or from any specific country. I like the cultural aspects of each country and we shall preserve them, but I am against any kind of borders and political boundaries, which I find artificial and unfair.
Today, instead of globalizing politics and keeping the specificities of each culture, we tend to globalize culture and nationalize politics with xenophobia, extreme, selfish and dangerous votes, of which the election of President Trump is just one example. We need to reverse that: protect and value each culture and its differences but put down all political and administrative boundaries and walls, recognizing them for what they are: expressions of fear and despair.
I feel ashamed when I travel that people from developing countries are not allowed to travel to any country they wish, like mine for example. I am for a borderless World, managed by the United Nations or a similar transnational organization, to bring about World peace. To me Democracy Earth is the perfect vehicle to promote this kind of Universal vision, that is why I applied to become an Ambassador. I very much like the idea of a decentralized governance for politics and a World community. Global governance seems like a utopia today but I hope new digital tools like the blockchain can bring that, instead of being used to centralize, yet again, even more power and wealth.
DEF: You are exceptional as an Ambassador as you are the first one to be tapping on the global reach of Sovereign to bring a global issue to attention; other Ambassadors, like Sunny Sangha in the UK, are working at the local and city level. Where do you expect most interest to come from, and how do you see liquid democracy helping to foster climate-change action?
Tristan L: We already see the impacts of climate change with extreme climate events becoming more frequent, and this is unfortunately just the start. As individuals, we feel helpless and don’t know how to engage in a concrete way. Tools like Sovereign and crypto-currencies can help everybody to engage in a simple, transparent and decentralized way. It can help people to create communities, catalyze positive energy, invest, advocate and act collectively for these causes. It can help raise more funding, manage and monitor it in a transparent and traceable way. We need an “Arab Spring”-like mobilization, applied to Climate action. This “Climate Spring” is made possible today with tools like Sovereign and, more globally, new technologies that can help each of us do our share to actually change the world, if we use them with the right intention.
DEF: We work everyday so that Sovereign can soon become the platform that can enable such a noble movement like yours. The idea of a “Climate Spring” seems phenomenal! What is your message to other grassroots activists who might feel skeptical about the role of technology?
Tristan L: New technologies are a neutral tool, which makes it up to us, the users, to remember the most important thing — to use them for good. It is no solution to leave them to organizations wishing to use them just for concentrating power and wealth. These new technologies are very powerful weapons that we can use for the common good and to ensure peace. It is an opportunity, maybe like never before, to empower people, unite and advocate for a more fair world and just societies living in better balance with Nature. To get there, it depends on each of us to engage. All this, for our own individual good, happiness and our common future together.
Thank you so much Tristan — we are extremely glad to have you onboard and pioneering these important matters with Democracy Earth and the Sovereign platform!
