MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 8, 2025--
At the Nobel Sustainability Trust Summit 2025, O.N.E Amazon advanced a clear case for redefining biodiversity as critical global infrastructure, emphasizing that the stability of economies, climates, and societies fundamentally depends on the health of ecosystems such as the Amazon rainforest.
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The roundtable, moderated by Jill Hudkins, Chief Executive Global Advisory of AECOM, convened a distinguished group of leaders working across conservation, science, policy, and sustainable development, including Gustavo Manrique, President of Sambito and former Minister of Environment of Ecuador; Dr. Richard Hansen, archaeologist and President of the Foundation for Anthropological Research & Environmental Studies (FARES); and Narendra Ramgulam, Deputy Director for sustainable tourism, Caribbean Tourism Organization.
Together, the panel examined how biodiversity functions as critical global infrastructure, underpinning water security, food systems, climate regulation, economic resilience, and long-term national stability, and underscored the need for stronger data, governance, and investment models capable of operating at the scale of ecological challenges.
Within this broader context, O.N.E Amazon CEO Rodrigo Veloso, described the deployment of the world’s first Internet of Forests (IoF™) as a foundational step toward this goal. Hundreds of sensors, acoustic devices, soil monitors, and imaging technologies have already been installed in regions such as the Darién in Panama and the Chiribiquete National Park in Colombia. “If we can measure it, we can value it,” Veloso said. “ The Internet of Forests allows us to rebuild nature’s backbone infrastructure and understand biodiversity at a level that makes conservation investable.”
Veloso noted that O.N.E Amazon’s model has only become possible due to the recent convergence of key enablers: new regulatory clarity in the United States, advances in blockchain compliance standards such as ERC-3643, and the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence capable of processing the ecological intelligence captured by the IoF™. Together, these developments create, for the first time, the conditions for nature-backed Digital Asset Securities to operate under full regulatory compliance.
“We are only able to launch a fully regulated nature-backed Digital Asset Security now because the regulatory landscape has changed,” Veloso said. “The leadership of the Environmental Task Force, the Crypto Task Force, and the clarity emerging under President Trump’s GENIUS Act make this possible. And when you combine this with blockchain, through the ERC-3643 standard, and AI, we can finally bring nature into markets responsibly. Lasting conservation depends on aligning market incentives with ecological outcomes, responsibly harnessing the power of markets to ensure the forest is more valuable alive than dead.”
“O.N.E Amazon’s selection as the first regulated Digital Asset Security under the SEC Project Crypto Innovation Exemption acknowledgment of ERC-3643 is a significant moment for the future of compliant tokenization in the United States and the world,” said Dennis O’Connell, President of ERC-3643 and Partner and CTO at PSG. “It shows the impact of global standards for identity, compliance, and investor protection can be practically applied to real-world assets with integrity. It proves that regulated digital infrastructure can deliver outcomes that matter, in this case supporting the long-term protection and economic valuation of one of the planet’s most essential ecosystems . ERC-3643 Association is proud to recognize O.N.E Amazon as a model for how responsible digital assets should be built.”
As global discussions increasingly recognize biodiversity as essential infrastructure, O.N.E Amazon is building the technological and financial architecture capable of protecting the Amazon rainforest at the scale the planet requires.
About O.N.E Amazon
O.N.E Amazon is a disruptive company that transforms conservation into Investment with Purpose. At its core is the O.N.E Amazon Coin (OAC), a new Digital Asset Security– soon to be launched- supported by the Internet of Forests (IoF™) and the One Amazon Impact & Sustainability Fund (OAIF). By turning the Amazon’s invisible services into measurable financial value, we make conservation more valuable than deforestation. By investing 85% of all funds raised into local initiatives, O.N.E Amazon delivers measurable impact for nature, for people, and for investors alike.
Jill Hudkins, Chief Executive Global Advisory, AECOM; Rodrigo Veloso, Founder & CEO, O.N.E Amazon; Dr. Richard Hansen, President, Foundation for Anthropological Research & Environmental Studies (FARES); Gustavo Manrique, President of Sambito; Narendra Ramgulam, Deputy Director for Sustainable Tourism, Caribbean Tourism Organization.
NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI said Tuesday that it found explosive residue in a Pennsylvania storage unit as part of an investigation into two men charged with bringing homemade bombs to a protest outside the home of New York City’s mayor.
Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, told police after their arrests that they were inspired by the Islamic State group, according to law enforcement officials and a criminal complaint.
The men live in the Philadelphia suburbs and drove together to New York City on Saturday to carry out the attack near Gracie Mansion in Manhattan, officials said.
In response to police questioning, Balat said he hoped to accomplish something “even bigger” than the Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people, the complaint said.
Overnight Monday, FBI bomb technicians conducted controlled detonations of the explosive residue found at a public storage facility in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, near where Balat’s family lives, the agency said.
The explosion resulted in “several loud bangs,” the Middletown Township Police Department said Tuesday, adding that there was no threat to residents. The FBI said it has conducted multiple searches in connection with the investigation.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday called the attack "absolutely despicable" and said government investigators and prosecutors won’t rest until the perpetrators are brought to justice.
Much remains unknown about the motives, planning and relationship between Balat and Kayumi.
Court documents show Emir Balat’s father, Selahattin Balat, is a native of Turkey who was granted asylum in the United States in 1998 and later became a U.S. citizen. In a 2009 bankruptcy filing, he listed his occupation as painter and said he had three children.
Emir Balat is a senior at Neshaminy High School in Langhorne. A school spokesperson said he enrolled in a virtual program in September and had not attended in-person classes since.
His lawyer, Mehdi Essmidi, said his client had “complicated stuff going on” in his personal life, without elaborating. Essmidi said he did not believe the two young men had known each other for long.
Kayumi is from Newtown, about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) north of Langhorne. He graduated in 2024 from Council Rock High School North, according to a school spokesperson.
His attorney did not speak to reporters following a court hearing Monday and declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press.
Online records show that Kayumi's parents have owned and worked at multiple Popeyes fast food locations, including in Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Atlantic City.
His mother filed a missing person report with police Saturday, the day of the protest, saying her son had not been seen since that morning, according to the complaint.
Prosecutors, police and FBI officials say Balat and Kayumi joined a throng of counterprotesters at a small, anti-Muslim rally organized by far-right activist Jake Lang. A Christian nationalist, Lang is a critic of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat and the first Muslim to hold the office.
Journalists photographed Balat hurling a device, smoking with a lit fuse, that was later found to contain the explosive TATP. The object, which also contained nuts and bolts, extinguished itself without harming anyone.
Balat then dropped a second object near some police officers and tried to run, but was tackled and arrested, according to a court complaint.
Balat and Kayumi were being held without bail after their court appearance on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction. They were not required to enter a plea.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday there were no indications that the attack was connected to the ongoing war in Iran, but said the city remained on a heightened state of alert.
On Tuesday afternoon, a park near the mayor’s residence was evacuated and several surrounding streets were closed as police investigated reports of a “suspicious device.”
The object was later determined to be nonthreatening.
Mamdani was not home at the time and Gracie Mansion was not evacuated, a City Hall spokesperson said.
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Associated Press reporter Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this report.
NYPD police officer and K-9 dog walks outside Carl Schurz Park as they investigate suspicious device, Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Jake Lang demonstrates outside Gracie Mansion after a news conference by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani , Monday, March 9, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a news conference at Gracie Mansion, Monday, March 9, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
Emir Balat, left, and Ibrahim Kayumi, far right, are escorted into Manhattan federal court in New York, Monday, March, 9, 2026, for arraignment on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction after they were arrested for bringing and throwing explosives at a protest two days earlier. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
From left, defense attorney Mehdi Essmidi, defendant Emir Balat, defense attorney Michael Arthus and defendant Ibrahim Kayumi wait for the start of arraignment proceedings in Manhattan federal court in New York, Monday, March, 9, 2026, on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction in New York after Balat and Kayumi were arrested for bringing and throwing explosives at a protest two days earlier. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Police detain Emir Balat after he attempted to detonate an improvised explosive device during a counterprotest against far right influencer Jake Lang staging an anti-Islam protest outside Gracie Mansion, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Julius Constantine Motal)
