Inside the Nature Guild: Exploring How Web3 Can Fund the Future of Nature Stewardship

Last week, we gathered for the fourth class of the Nature Guild’s Cohort 0, a closed learning circle bringing together pioneering community leaders who care for ecosystems around the world.

These stewards come from diverse regions such as the Amazon, East Africa, and Southeast Asia, yet share a common challenge: finding fair and sustainable ways to fund their work protecting nature.

What is the Nature Guild?

If you’re new here, the Nature Guild is a growing, experimental DAO where nature stewards explore how Web3 can strengthen community-led conservation.

Across five modules, participants are exploring:

1. Commitment pooling and collective action, learning how communities have always pooled effort and resources.

2. Introduction to Web3, understanding blockchains, tokens, and digital wallets.

3. DAOs and governance, exploring how decentralized organizations make collective decisions.

4. Grants and fundraising, exploring how funding and accountability work in this new ecosystem.

5. Web3 security and data privacy, continuing the discussion on trust and digital stewardship.

Each class builds toward a bigger question: how can nature stewards use digital tools without losing their values of reciprocity, care, and trust?

This session began with an open reflection on how participants currently find support for their projects. Together, we mapped the landscape of traditional or Web2 funding, from government agencies and large conservation organizations to angel investors and corporate CSR programs.

Participants shared their experiences applying for grants and pitching to funders. They spoke about the hurdles that still persist: lengthy and rigid applications, requirements written only in English, and systems that often exclude those working directly on the ground. Some mentioned how funds pass through multiple intermediaries, while others described issues such as delayed disbursement or even corruption within the process.

These reflections revealed the everyday realities of accessing resources for local action and set the stage for exploring something new.

Exploring Web3 as an Alternative Path

We then explored how Web3 technologies could make funding more open, inclusive, and transparent. Unlike traditional systems that rely on banks and intermediaries, Web3 fundraising happens on public blockchains, using smart contracts, digital wallets, and community-governed funds known as DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations).

This model allows stewards to:

• Receive funds directly from global supporters

• Collaborate across borders

• Track transactions transparently

• Experiment with new forms of collective decision-making

Participants also learned about platforms that are already being used to bridge these worlds:

• Ecocertain, a platform developed by GainForest for communities to showcase proof of impact

• Giveth, for community project fundraising

• Karma GAP, for transparent grant reporting

• ENS Public Goods Builder Grants, supporting public goods in the Ethereum and Web3 ecosystems

We also surfaced realistic limits of Web3. Participants flagged a learning curve for wallets and transfers, frequent changes in platforms and tools, and an uneven picture for impact reporting. At the same time, communities are cautious about visibility: blockchain transparency helps accountability but raises questions about which data should remain private. These are practical trade-offs we are exploring together as we test Web3 approaches.

Learning Through Simulation

To close the class, participants joined a live experiment using Simocracy, an AI-powered decision-making tool. Each participant created a “Sim,” a digital reflection of their values, and together these Sims simulated how a group might allocate 10,000 USDC across three proposed projects:

1. Community tree planting

2. Mangrove restoration

3. Nature education programs

This exercise is part of our ongoing experiment with personification through AI, exploring whether digital “Sims” could help represent the perspectives of nature stewards who are often out in the field and may not always have time to join in-person or online discussions.

The goal is not to replace human decision-making but to support it, creating tools that can help keep collective processes active, inclusive, and grounded in the community’s shared values, even when people are spread across different time zones and landscapes.

Watching their Sims discuss and distribute resources helped participants see how technology could one day help communities make collective, values-aligned decisions about shared funds.

What’s Next

Our next class will focus on Web3 security and data privacy, continuing the conversation on how communities can build trust while keeping sensitive information protected. We will also reflect on how the Nature Guild itself can grow beyond these sessions, shaping shared governance and collaboration models for this experimental DAO of nature stewards.

The Nature Guild is not just about learning to use technology. It is also about reshaping it. We want digital tools to strengthen, not replace, the human and ecological relationships that sustain life.

📌 This post is part of the Nature Guild Cohort 0 learning series, where experienced nature stewards explore how Web3 tools can support regenerative work and community resilience. Read our reflections from Module 1, Module 2, and Module 3.