Mission One:
The Shield
The Amazon rainforest—Earth’s most biodiverse and most endangered place. Here, Indigenous “Guardians of Nature” fight to protect their home from deforestation, mining, and illegal farming.
Saving their home means saving our planet.
Mission Overview
Situation
The Amazon rainforest, one of Earth’s nine critical “tipping points,” is on the brink of collapse. Spanning an area twice the size of India, it faces relentless threats from illegal farming, mining, logging, and deforestation.
Our best hope to protect this irreplaceable ecosystem lies with its Indigenous communities, the “Guardians of Nature.” They live in harmony with the land and protect 80% of the Amazon’s vast expanse.
These Guardians are mobilizing to resist invaders, defend their homes, and safeguard the planet’s future.
Urgency
Despite their courage, the Guardians are witnessing the Amazon’s destruction escalate.
17% of the rainforest has already been lost—a devastating milestone reached in just five decades. At this rate, the critical 20-25% tipping point could be crossed by 2030. 95% of all activities in the rainforest are illegal.
Beyond that, the Amazon risks an irreversible transformation into a barren savanna, with catastrophic effects on biodiversity, climate stability, and global ecosystems. Indigenous communities need more than determination—they require advanced tools and strategies to halt the devastation.
End Game
Mission One: The Shield is a revolutionary defense system designed to protect the Amazon. Using satellite-based detection and real-time surveillance, this end-to-end solution will:
Detect, alert, document, and enforce against illegal activity.
Empower over 4000 Indigenous communities across the Amazon basin.
Safeguard an immense 844 million hectares of rainforest spanning nine countries.
Create the world’s first high-tech, high-resolution, scalable defense model, safeguarding the entire Amazon basin.
This moonshot mission marks the dawn of one of the largest and most crucial conservation efforts in history, Mission One: The Shield.
The Amazon Rainforest
Our Strategy
The “Guardians of Nature” face a well-funded and well-equipped opposition across the Amazon. Relying solely on manual surveillance expeditions is insufficient to protect all the frontlines of the rainforest.
Mission One: The Shield is our approach to leveling the playing field. Through a network of tech entrepreneurs, policymakers, scientists, NGO leaders, activists and investors, we are introducing advanced solutions to strengthen the Guardians' defense capabilities.
“We will empower Indigenous communities with cutting-edge tech, tools and tactics
to win this war.“
Lawrence Leuschner, Founder of Capacity.
Supported by high-resolution, radar-based satellite systems and other detection technologies like for example, radio frequency monitoring, illegal invaders can be detected and alerts triggered in near real-time, alerting the on-the-ground “Guardians of Nature”. This system enables a rapid response to threats as they unfold. In cases where indigenous guardians are unable to resolve the issue due to risk or distance, long-range drones will be deployed to document the incident from above. Based on this data, an automated report will be generated and sent to federal authorities for review and action. The entire enforcement process will be tracked to ensure swift and effective action.
Building on our experience scaling solutions, we are creating a model that can be applied across the Amazon—and beyond.
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Step 1: Amazon Satellite Surveillance
Radar-based and optical satellites provide daily imagery datasets of our areas of interest. These datasets are transmitted to Earth and integrated into our monitoring and alerting system for comprehensive daily analysis.
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Step 2: Monitoring and Alert System
Our monitoring and alert system will analyse complex data sets from various sources, comparing them in a "before/after" context alongside an AI model to identify potential future threats. The analysis will be further enhanced with historical data to ensure higher accuracy in the alert generated.
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Step 3: Alert, Documentation and Resolution
Once an invasion is detected, an alert is triggered and sent to the Indigenous community in the respective territory. The “Guardians of Nature” will use our newly developed mobile application to receive all relevant information about the incident (satellite images, GPS location data), confirm the issue, and provide feedback on the situation, including potential resolutions. If the issue is confirmed but cannot be resolved due to high personal risk or distance, a long-range drone will be deployed to gather further evidence. This evidence will be integrated into the system for further analysis.
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Step 4: Report Filing
All collected information will be compiled into a detailed legal report, ensuring accuracy and adherence to regulatory standards. This report will then be submitted to federal and state authorities, providing them with the necessary data and evidence to facilitate further investigation, enforcement, or other appropriate actions.
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Step 5: File Tracking
To ensure that action and enforcement are being taken, all filed reports will be tracked and continuously updated based on information from authorities and/or Indigenous communities. If no action is taken, the case will be escalated to higher levels.
Mission Leader
Philippe Dahmen
Activist and Capacity’s Moonshot Mission Builder
Philippe Dahmen is a venture builder, passionate vegan animal advocate, and environmentalist. He is currently the Moonshot Mission Builder at Capacity, where he prioritizes biodiversity through collaboration between scientists, entrepreneurs, activists, and policymakers.
Philippe has a background in consulting, venture scaling, and international management, and is driven by the mission to protect our planet.
It‘s not my fight. It‘s our fight.
JOIN THE MISSION
Become a Steward of the Planet.
We need volunteers to support our first mission—from research to fieldwork. Whether you have 1 hour or 40, your engagement will make a difference.
About the Capacity network
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