You may be shocked to hear, but Ireland is the ideal setting for a grand experiment in building a network state around biodiversity credits and cultural restoration.
It’s a nation in ecological free fall for many reasons, but two things are of major concern:
1) Ireland’s agri-business is racking up quite a carbon credit bill, due in 2030, that the taxpayer will highly likely have to absorb.
2) Possibly within Gen Z’s lifetime, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) could collapse because of ongoing ice melt in Greenland.
Having established the urgency to warrant (at least some) restorative action, the avenues available lead to Voluntary Nature Markets (VNMs). Nature Finance frameworks within the EU intend for VNMs to attract private capital to nature-positive actions.
Going one step further, VNMs could be a much-welcomed catalyst for the cultural revolution ongoing, evident in the sharp revival of the Irish language.
Following Paul Murphy’s lead in Geopolitics at the Edge, let’s apply the concept of cosmolocalism to the Irish context to erect a network state across the 400+ tech and innovation hubs across the country, hell bent on insulating Ireland from catastrophe.
An Emerald Elephant in the Room
To address the ‘Emerald Isle’ paradox, it’s essential to understand Ireland’s modern food crisis.
As author Kevin Collins describes, Big Beef & Dairy in Ireland treats agriculture like an export industry, rather than a national (or island-wide) food system. The EU heavily subsidises the industry, which covers an overwhelming amount of agricultural land in Ireland, and experts link it to serious nitrate contamination of national rivers.
Shockingly, Ireland is facing the Mercosur deal, which would gut domestic beef farming and impact exports to the tune of (potentially) hundreds of millions per year. All in the name of a reduction in “customs and taxes by €4 billion” over seven years within the EU, Irish farmers are understandably feeling coerced into this deal.
Reading between the lines, the EU is favouring South American beef imports that will undoubtedly produce a larger carbon footprint while also undercutting Irish farmers, already bent over backwards adhering to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) conditionality.
The EU is effectively in favour of outsourcing Ireland’s climate responsibilities abroad, which is … [checks notes] not good! Indeed, advisors suggest Mercosur countries avoid Amazon deforestation, thus adhering to EU environmental standards in trade; however, these are non-binding and will rely on self-reporting.
A textbook case of unbridled carbon-value leakage could unfold, and if nothing else, this indicates a need for diversification in the Irish farming industry.
Ireland’s Call
By and large, it seems farmers across the EU are having a tough time, all citing a complex, shifting regulatory environment on top of persistent financial difficulties.
And yet a very narrow window of opportunity has arisen for Irish farmers, forecasted to experience the most profitable year in decades. As average incomes surge 39% to an estimated €48,500 in 2025, farmers could redirect temporary profitability to native forestry and the development of biocultural credits. But their incomes are subsidy-dependent and not exactly disposable.
Institutional investors seem convinced. AXA evidences this through a €2 million purchase of woodland credits from Bank of Ireland, although Maddy Savage perceives unrealised potential in Ireland’s climate tech sector. So, how do?
There are plenty of examples of how an Irish VNM could work, particularly if involving a blockchain solution. AI-driven remote sensing and open-source monitoring tools like GainForest enable biodiversity measurements, like tree cover and soil health, in real time.
Users can record this data transparently, building public trust while cutting paperwork for landowners or managers, who can then bundle, tokenise, and convert verified restoration results into tradable units. A pay-for-performance model would generate revenue for participating farmers or landowners and give corporate impact investors access to high-integrity assets.
Credit scoring could be based on various metrics such as species richness and ecological connectivity, much like Ecuadorian Biocultural Jaguar Credits. This model is working quite well, showing that blending culture and ecology can secure lasting stewardship for restoration.
Not only would this model sit nicely within an Irish VNM as an insurance layer, it also has the advantage of letting communities reclaim ownership of their landscapes. There are already some initiatives resembling this, like Teacht Aniar for cultural revival and the Gaelic Woodland Project aimed at ecological restoration. While neither is blockchain-based, they could adapt and implement the successful Jaguar Credit and GainForest models.
To be (onchain), or not to be
It’s ok if you sigh at the mention of blockchain. Like you, many leading crypto minds are also contemplating the crypto industry.
It’s also totally fair to point out that Costa Rica has seen an explosion in tree cover since launching a reforestation program in 1997, all without a single blockchain. Now a leader in ecotourism and exemplar in restoration, couldn’t Ireland replicate this success? Hell, no.
In short, Costa Rica had a well-established biodiversity law and confidence in its environmental institutions. Ireland may not be so blessed. By contrast, the country suffers from administrative fatigue, fragmented governance, and widely mistrusted CAP bureaucracy.
Ireland needs market infrastructure that interacts with both EU and global systems, which Costa Rica didn’t, and the EU is already exploring digital measurement-reporting-verification (MRV) systems and tokenised environmental credits for the Green Deal.
Looking domestically at Reforest Nation, an Irish VNM would go far beyond the scale of operating on donations and community goodwill. Processing large institutional capital and quantifying financial-grade assets is serious business, with every juncture requiring verifiability.
Going back to the AXA-BoI deal, involving Coillte and Forestry Partners, these are highly conservative institutions that don’t want the smoke (for now). These actors want absolute control over the registry and are expected to be ready for Big 4 audits.
The irony is that an onchain VNM would tackle a lot of the major concerns, as demonstrated by Toucan, Open Forest Protocol, and the Regen Network.
Considering our hypothetical VNM would span from North to South and West to East, likely touching the Irish Tech Hub Network (ITHN) and over 390 Connected Hubs, we’d likely want to take a leaf out of the latter’s book.
Keeping It Local
While there are several suitable blockchain networks to build upon, namely Ethereum, Celo, Solana and Human.Tech, onchain nature credits in Ireland doesn’t mean starting from zero.
There are existing Irish offerings that could be patched together or adapted to deliver an effective VNM, starting with Anu Initiative for the governance and treasury layer.
Trrue has a chain capable of providing the settlement layer, while the proof layer could be managed by Búan Fund. There is scope to add more integrity with an application such as TrueShot, preventing anyone from augmenting visual proof of their restoration efforts with AI.
Nature experts might be able to use a tool like Olas, an information market publicly praised by Vitalik himself, for reporting on national restoration efforts.
In the real world, you’d likely see ecotourism taking shape. Perhaps along the Wild Atlantic Way or near the Great Lighthouses of Ireland, you might see people visiting nearby restoration sites.
Lest we forget the geographical distribution of the six primary ITHN locations in Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Kerry, and Galway, along with the Connected Hubs, resembling nodes on a network.
With literally hundreds of touch points for ecological restoration and cultural revival between the ITHN and rural innovation hubs, all likely within kilometres of eligible land, the Irish language would surely find its place.
This does not include the numerous universities and colleges scattered across the island. An exciting prospect: Leinster, Ulster, Connacht, and Munster working collectively towards a biocultural VNM, each province leveraging its strengths to build a borderless network state.
From Ecological Decline to Biocultural Renewal
A high-integrity VNM is definitely ambitious and not without its challenges.
Adoption by Irish farmers faces hurdles in digital literacy, trust, and access. Success will depend on integrating new systems with familiar local structures, like co-ops, charitable trusts or public participation networks. Policy-builders must confront the challenges of regulatory compliance, which are essential for long-term viability, by anticipating verification issues and future amendments.
Yet, hidden within the intricacies, an extraordinary opportunity to make restoration a pillar of Irish pride, prosperity, and practicality: VNMs can pay landowners for preserving their land and culture.
VNMs present as a lifeline to make up the estimated “shortfall of €37 billion per year between current spending and what’s needed to meet our nature goals.”
The risk is not whether Ireland should do this, but whether it can afford not to.
