LANDSCARE, A SOCIAL NETWORK SPECIALIZED IN THE CONSERVATION OF NATURE LandsCare is the first global payment system based on scenic beauty Author: Pablo Martínez de Anguita The mechanisms of Payment for Environmental Services (PSA in Spanish) are systems trying to capture the value of services offered by nature that don t have a defined market, and to invest in their conservation. The most traditional example is to receive a payment for water resource from the high and medium parts of water basins. These systems have especially been articulated in water and carbon sectors, unlike what happened in the ecosystemic service of scenic beauty. An important number of landscapes offer a beauty only valuable for who directly enjoys it the tourist visiting a beautiful place or indirectly the restaurant receiving clients because it is located near the place attracting tourists. In spite of this, even if landscapes have a value, they don t have price, which doesn t mean they don t have maintenance costs. Landscare is a system that aims to capture the value of a good called natural or cultural landscape in order to invest founds in non-profit associations (forest owner, cultural associations, territory protection entities, public and educative institutions. etc) and in private institutions involved in this heritage s conservation. LandsCare is a communication system traveller local population focused on the promotion of a territory through a smart and free app, available for IOS and Android. This system focused on rural development includes a PSA system completed by a variety of geolocated utilities allowing the traveller to be integrated in the territory in any rural place, to discover it, to be in contact with the people and to contribute to the preservation of local nature and local rural development of this territory, as well as to integrate the local population by sharing project of added value to the territory. Concretely, LandsCare offers to the traveller the possibility to: 1.) Have geolocated information in real time while he s travelling (or also when he s planning his trip from home) about beautiful and precious places on his way 2.) Collaborate with micropayments (buying seals) to the support of these cultural and natural values through the mobile app or the website www.landscare.org 3.) Get commercial offers and discounts in establishments thanks to his micropayments 4.) Find information about the entity associated to the conservation of this place, allowing him to contribute in some other way (LandsCarers). 5.) Find local guides (LandSharers) able to share some time with him and accompany him through the territory 6.) Find natural local products and buy them directly to the producers (LandsCrafts). Regarding the local populations, LandsCare gives the possibility to:
1.) Show the territory in a personal and changing way, updated by the own local agents 2.) Integrate shops, public and private owners offering environmental, cultural goods, services and administrations, to small microprojets of conservation and to mutual benefit networks through the promotion of their territory 3.) Sell through LandsCare their local sustainable products and to get extra income as local guides. 4.) Integrate different education entities to the promotion and even protection of environmental and local goods in order to facilitate the understanding, including the students in this process. Figure 1: Guide LandsCare-Central America of nature, culture, services and trails Currently, LandsCare is being implemented as a pilot in Central America with the social aim to: contribute to preserve the natural and cultural heritage from Central America, through new technologies with a concretee philosophy, natural subsidiarity. The aim is to support the ones who, in an effective way, preserve their natural and cultural heritage. This way, sharing it in different ways, they can all contribute to the preservation of biodiversity, culture and nature in a common way. LandsCare is a social network specialized in preservation of free nature. We wish to generate the creation of multiple social networks (figure 5). If you are interested in developping LandsCare in your country or in your territory, you can write to us at info@landscare.org or look for more information on www.landscare.org
LandsCarers LandsCare is simple and direct. It benefits who takes care in a triple situation: who visits a territory, who takes care of it and who has a commercial establishment related to the preservation of a space or good. The tourist using the app receives information about whatever has natural and cultural value in the area. Furthermore he can buy through the app directly to people having the authority to take care of this good or ecosystemic or cultural service, called LandsCarer or protectors of this territory, the seal of their service. This seal guarantees the presence of the traveler in this territory while it constitutes a micropayment to the LandsCarers allowing them to keep preserving it (payment for environmental or cultural service). These protectors - in the proper terminology theses LandsCarers - commit to keep preserving the heritage explaining their compromise through the app. This way the traveler - or user - can know the destination of his micropayment through Paypal (always inferiorr to 10$). The possession of this seal of environmental service allows him to access local offers from close commercial establishments. Everybody wins. The tourist gets information about natural and cultural spaces from the area and offers from establishment involved in their conservation, the protector receives a compensation for his contributionn to maintain the heritage, and the establishment gets new clients thanks to the offer. Figure 2: LandsCare payment system for environmental services
LandSharers In order to truly understandd a territory and to promote it, it is necessary to know how to interpret it. This is why LandsCare includes in its app a free geolocated system to find local guides and territory interprets called LandSharers, who can be contacted by visitors and users through the app. These sharers of their territory can be guides of culture and nature from the area (accredited or not from different regional development agencies) but also people telling local stories, possessing the keys of a countryside chapel, or simply rural people wishing to share a moment by showing to visitors the place s way of life, its traditions or talking while they go for a walk or inside the bar/restaurant of the village. Whoever wishes to share his land for a while (being paid or not) with visitors can register as a LandSharer for free in LandsCare. With this system, LandsCare intends to promote the local economy through a simple system of experiential tourism where people living in villages and rural areas can become sharer of their rural environment (LandSharers) showing their patrimony and their way of life. Figure 3: LandsCare as a system for localization of local guides or LandSharers
LandsCrafts One of the small local producers problems is the commercialization of their products. On the other hand, the mechanisms of market, allowing the discrimination of products related to sustainable practices (certified food, green labels, fair trade etc), offer sales channels not necessarily related to the territory. LandsCare aims to geolocate rural local producers and their products so that the traveler can get information in real time, appearing on the app s map when he visits a territory of artisanal products, especially food elaborated according to different good practices codes. Throughh the LandsCraft window of the app, the user will find different local products close to him and decide to buy them on site or to realize the purchase through Paypal (shipping charges excluded). LandsCrafts products can be discounted if travelers have contributed to the local preservation through the purchase of a seal, according to producers.
Figure 5: Blog New Ways Sustainability The social networks LandsCare liaises protectors/owners with local shops, hosts and producers. The user or traveler using LandsCare is the axis allowing the creation of a commercial nexus between all of them.