The Mission

How are we going to do this? New Development embodies the following principles:

• At heart, conservation is an issue of the human will. The only way to change the destructive behaviour of people, is to change their hearts. In partnership with the body of Messiah we take people on nature camps to experience and get to know the Creator, with a focus on young people, the leaders of the future. Nature camps focuses on making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them about the importance of creation care and stewardship while experiencing nature and seeing basic ecological principles for themselves.
• The vision of New Development is too big for a single organization and much of our work will be with and through partners in order to reach it. Farmers, as the ultimate stewards of most land in the world, and business people, as the drivers of the world's economy, have to be major partners in any succesful attempt at biodiversity conservation.
• Conservancies is one practical way in which New Development will help farmers with faithful stewardship of their land. Through conservancies biodiversity corridors can be created, helping to reach the goal of half earth being protected. In the same way conservancies can be used to formally protect the rights of indigenous people groups while simultaneously helping to to look after their land in a sustainable manner and to benefit from its biodiversity.
• The best way to convince farmers and business people to become part of the solution, is by modeling how biodiversity can increase the profitability and sustainability of their respective activities. For this purpose we will rent and eventually buy one or more farms where sustainable methods are demonstrated to work on a commercial farm. Similarly, a number of real, for-profit software and hardware development projects will demonstrate the ROI of biodiversity.
• We use Biomimetics to find solutions to engineering (and other) problems. This consists of reverse engineering nature to find out how the ultimate Designer has solved various problems facing engineers. It demonstrates that biodiversity itself, and not just ecosystem services, is valuable.
• In addition to biomimetics, New Development also leverages indigenous local knowledge and skills (e.g. tracking used in the Farming with Predators project). Africa is one of the richest continents in the world in terms of remaining biodiversity. By using this resource to create monetary benefit, New Development raise the perceived value of biodiversity. "Economic development" is a major threat to Africa's biodiversity. By leveraging Open Source technology and local knowledge New Development encourages a knowledge-based economy, helping Africa to leapfrog the industrialization that led to the biodiversity poverty of the "developed" world. The resulting decrease in poverty also leads to decreasing popluation growth, and thus less habitat loss.
• Open source licenses encourage sharing of technology, leading to faster knowledge growth and a much lower barrier to entry into the high-tech world. We believe that a strong business case can be made for the used of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) [1] and Hardware (FOSH). For this reason, we are starting various open source projects, both to provide affordable technology for wildlife and ecological research, and to prevent vender lock-in [2] and technology loss. When working with proprietary technology, the partner companies must provide an open API so that New Development IP will remain open source.
• New Development is committed to the biblical priciple of modeling change instead of just words and will give at least one tenth of its profits to other organizations working in the Kingdom of God (the biblical principle of tithing).
• To have any realistic chance of success, partners, both commercial and non-profit organizations and individuals will be needed. Funding will also be done per project, so that partners can invest time or money specifically in projects that fit with their own expertise and vison. The share-holders in a specific project will decide whether that project should be non-profit or for-profit. Only a unanimous decision by all shareholders and investors can later change a project between being a for-profit or a non-profit.
• We see New Development as primarily a movement, with one great vision, but with a flexable structure. The focus is to remain on our unchanging vision, but the organization itself will be open to change and adapting to a changing environment. This is one reason for keeping the different projects financially separate from each other. It means that the movement can easily spread to other countries and function independently, or possibly that certain projects can spin off as businesses of their own.

For who do we want to do it? Who is our target client?

• Our main "client" is earth itself and ultimately the Creator of earth, as the one Person we wish to please above all. We exist to serve the King and his Kingdom.
• But we also serve our fellow believers, the church of Yeshua on earth, with a focus on young people. We function as part of the body of Messiah on earth, without belonging to a specific denomination.
• By research and developing affordable research equipment, we serve our fellow conservationists.
• By partnering with farmers, we serve other farmers through research and testing, demonstrating ecologically sustainaible farming methods, and providing software tools. Of course, most farmers are also members of the church.
• By demonstrating value in biodiversity for open source technology development and teaching principles of biomimetics, we serve "green" businesses, enabling them to copy and apply our methods.
• By helping to develop various income-generating technology as cost-effectively as possible, we serve normal users, especially those who care about the environment, by providing various affordable products.

What value are we bringing? What makes our services and products unique compared to so many other green tech or conservation organizations?

• We realize that to change the world, we need to change people's hearts. Changing structures or giving information is not enough. The only power strong enough to change people that we know, is the Good News of the Kingdom of God being established on earth through his Holy Spirit as promised in the Bible (Isaiah 11:9).
• We are interdisciplinary, including entrepreneurs, hardware and software engineers, ecologists and missionaries. It is this holistic view of conservation and green technology, that truly sets us apart.
• We are 100% Open Source based. This means that if a project should ever fail for any reason, the intellectual property will not be lost. Moreover, we can avoid re-inventing the wheel, by allowing others to use our designs and improve them, as long as we can use the improvements in turn. This approach has been shown to work for software that can outcompete its competitors both in terms of quality and price (e.g. Linux). By taking IP concerns out of the way, real and wide knowledge transfer actually becomes practical.
• Through our partnerships and flexible structure, New Development forms an organic and adaptable link between Agriculture, Hi-Tech, Conservation and the Church.

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