The Fight Against Deforestation of Tropical Forests — The Contribution of the Blockchain-Based Contract Management Method to Minimize Illegal Logging

Tropical forests play a distinctive role in climate and atmospheric gas balance stabilization. They store carbon in their biomass, support biodiversity, and provide ecosystem services such as protection of watersheds or reduction of soil erosion. Forests act as sources for timber and non-timber forest products and are the habitat of forest communities’ inhabitants. Despite the importance of tropical forests, they continue to be devastated, causing 17% of global carbon emissions, loss of biodiversity, and climate change. Decades of efforts by governmental, non-governmental, and international organizations to reduce illegal deforestation worldwide have had limited success. In this paper, we analyze the opportunities to develop administrative methods for forest conservation based on the blockchain technology in combination with the economic activities of forest communities. The aim is to reduce the sale of illegally logged timber, to contribute to the reduction of illegal logging, and thereby to the mitigation of climate change. Based on this analysis, we propose a concept for tropical forest preservation through a blockchain-based contract management platform. This concept is based on field research of economic activities in Brazilian, Indian, and Thai forest communities.