Some Of The World’s Most Endangered Animals Set To Get Welfare Boost From New Conservation NFTs

WildEarth, one of the world’s largest broadcasters of live-streamed nature and animal experiences, has announced an NFT collection that allows viewers and nature enthusiasts to support conservation efforts and establish direct relationships with individual animals across WildEarth’s global footprint.

Over the many years that WildEarth have been broadcasting live from Djuma Game Reserve in South Africa, the broadcaster and their team have gotten to know certain animals very well. Now, they are embarking on an exciting and innovative new venture by creating limited edition collections of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for some of these special and unique animals.

Not only will collectors be able to follow the lives of these individual animals on WildEarth TV, but a portion of every sale of these NFTs from now into the future goes back to the custodians of the wildlife habitat on which these animals live, as an incentive to conserve that habitat. 

Conservation NFTs to help fund animal welfare and preserve biodiversity

WildEarth will mint limited collections of non-fungible tokens for each of these unique and special animals. Once minted, there will never be any more made. Each NFT in the collection relates to a physical animal, and not to a video or picture of that animal. Each NFT is unique, with its own unique serial number, within that animal’s collection. There will never be two NFTs that are the same.

Each animal will have a limited number of NFTs minted and together they are a collection.  To begin with, WildEarth are releasing the Genesis Collection – the first 25 animal collections consisting of 11 Leopards, 9 lions and 5 hyenas.

40% of every NFT sold by WildEarth is paid over to the custodian of the wild habitat that each animal lives or lived on. 8% of every future sale will be converted into the local currency and then paid to the habitat custodian forever. This money is paid in the local currency to the habitat in which the animal associated lives as an incentive to conserve.

What pays stays, and now we can all help these animals now pay their way. In fact, the first wave of funds* raised by the pre-sale of 26 individual animal collections of the new conservation NFTs has already gone back in to helping with an important ongoing conservation project in Djuma Private Game Reserve on the Sabi Sands in South Africa.

The owner and custodian of this reserve is Jurie Moolman. Around $15k has already been given to Moolman from the pre-sale which will be used to continue investing into the poor local communities that live around the reserve. Conservation starts with the local communities because if they have food and education then they will conserve rather than hunt and poach.

The NFT initiative has been marketed to over 5 million monthly viewers of WildEarth’s TV channel on platforms including Roku, DStv Africa, Amazon, iOS, Android, Plex, Bolt, Huawei, Xumo, Samsung+, Sling, LG+, Zeasn, and others. In Q4 of 2022, each NFT will be associated with individual animals, with each NFT-owner given access via a mobile app to video, stills, details, anecdotes, and the movement over time of each animal.

WildEarth will only be creating and storing their NFTs on blockchains that have low carbon footprints and green consciousness. There are already a number of blockchain technologies that embrace this philosophy and have built technology that cares. These are the ones that will carry their tokens.

Graham Wallington, WildEarth’s co-founder and CEO, says: “Since 2007, we have built a loyal and growing army of nature lovers who watch our TV channel frequently, many of them daily. This new NFT initiative binds our community closer to the animals they love, fostering a personal and emotional connection to the animals of their choice while providing funding for the care and conservation of the environments in which those animals live.”

In February 2022, the Search and ID show on WildEarth TV will introduce the new “watch-to-earn” utility. A thermal drone will search the African darkness to find and identify nocturnal predators and add them to the animal registry. At that moment, a limited-time minting window will open up for viewers to mint that animal as an NFT. Once the minting window closes, it will not re-open.

A future mobile app will not only give access to all individual animal data but will allow social chat between NFT-owners, fostering the sharing of information about their special animal friends with each other. Each animal collection becomes a club of meta-Custodians following the lives of real-world wild animals and just by owning one of its NFTs you are helping to protect its habitat or home which is the key to wildlife conservation.

Torsten Hoffmann, producer of two award-winning documentaries about Bitcoin and the crypto sector and a long-time investor in WildEarth said: “WildEarth’s mission has always been to increase the value of nature to people. With these NFTs, we bring something completely new to the market.”

At 17h00 GMT on Friday the 28th January 2022, WildEarth will open minting windows for their first 26 collections. Visit mint.wildearth.tv. to mint NFTs for 88 MATIC. Max 10 NFTs per wallet per collection, max 50 NFTs per wallet. All 26 of these minting windows will close at 17h00 GMT on Monday the 31st January 2022, and will not open for those individual animals again.

The Non-Fungible Tokens provided by WildEarth are not investments. Their principal purpose is to fund wild habitat conservation by providing NFT owners with a special relationship to unique animals. Purchasers should not expect the NFTs to increase in value and they may lose all value except that special relationship. Therefore, WildEarth strongly suggests that you only spend money on NFTs that you can afford to lose.