Category: Biodiversity Credits

This blog was written by our Project officer, Amelia Allerton. Amelia is responsible for the collaborative development of the seagrass biodiversity project and acts as the project’s technical coordinator. She has a background in biodiversity research within Marine Protected Areas and has experience supporting community projects. In this 2-part blog series, we explore the importance of biodiversity, the emerging market of biodiversity credits and the opportunities they provide for both forward-thinking businesses and nature. We hope you enjoy Part 2!

Welcome to Part 2 of our blog series! 

We have covered the biodiversity crisis and how important protecting and restoring nature is to our survival and quality of life. Now let’s explore how businesses can join the Nature Positive movement by investing in nature and our futures.

But how can businesses invest in nature? 

An emerging market of biodiversity credits are providing an avenue for businesses to tangibly invest in nature. Biodiversity credits are not offsets, but instead are part of the Nature Positive movement. They are meant for the private sector to voluntarily increase their investment in nature conservation and provide an opportunity for forward-thinking companies and business leaders to get ahead of the curve and prove they value nature and people as well as the bottom line. When looking for biodiversity credits to invest in, it is important to ensure credits are verifiable and Free Prior and Informed Consent was granted from the resident communities within a project region. Organisations such as Plan Vivo review, audit and certify biodiversity credits to ensure that what they offer to the market is a positive product that was sourced fairly, ethically and sustainably. By setting a standard that must be met for projects to sell credits, purchasers can rest assured they are buying a trusted product that protects biodiversity, communities and climate. These credits are often referred to as high-integrity biodiversity credits.

What are the business benefits to investing in nature? 

Investing in biodiversity credits does not have to be a one-sided affair and there are many potential benefits for businesses. 

As discussed in Part 1, nature and natural resources directly contribute to the economy and global GDP. By investing in nature, businesses can help develop more stable markets that are not as heavily impacted by the uncertainty of dwindling resources, extreme climatic events or unproductive soils. Showing that your business supports biodiversity conservation and recovery also addresses the growing consensus among consumers that businesses shouldn’t just take from the natural world without giving back. By investing in nature from market inception, businesses can set themselves as industry-leaders. Furthermore, as regulatory frameworks develop and Several countries, including Australia, the UK, and Gabon, are already embracing credits and moving to legislate, by voluntarily involving your business in the market early, companies can prove that their business genuinely and proactively supports biodiversity and are not simply reacting to legislative change. 

By investing in biodiversity credits, your business has the opportunity to innovate and solidify itself as a business leader and forward-thinking company. Purchasing these credits provides new marketing opportunities around your businesses support for the Nature Positive Movement. This provides your company with a competitive advantage and improves brand reputation across your business and products. Ethical company behaviour has a positive relationship with increased brand loyalty so biodiversity credits can be an effective way for connecting with consumers. Furthermore, staff retention and talent attraction is also positively associated with companies with strong ethical values and biodiversity credits can be a tangible way to contribute to your company sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility goals. 

Overall, businesses have a huge opportunity to address the biodiversity crisis for the benefit of the planet, people and business. Not only is supporting nature the right thing to do, but it can set your company apart as a business-leader.

If you would like to know more about biodiversity credits or are interested in supporting any of our projects, please do check out our web pages on our Vanga Seagrass Project and biodiversity credits. You can also reach out to the team at [email protected], we would love to hear from you!

This blog was written by our Project officer, Amelia Allerton. Amelia is responsible for the collaborative development of the seagrass biodiversity project and acts as the project’s technical coordinator. She has a background in biodiversity research within Marine Protected Areas and has experience supporting community projects. In this 2-part blog series, we explore the importance of biodiversity, the emerging market of biodiversity credits and the opportunities they provide for both forward-thinking businesses and nature. We hope you enjoy Part 1 and Part 2 will be released in late October 2024.

With the IUCN estimating that $600-800billion of funding is needed to sustain biodiversity, biodiversity credits are a new and exciting innovation that could help nature conservation and restoration address this funding gap. However, for biodiversity crediting to be a success, private sector buy-in is essential. 

The crisis 

Across the globe, plant and animal species are disappearing at an ever-faster rate due to human activity. Habitat loss is the main cause, with humans actively destroying vital habitats through deforestation, urbanisation and intensive farming and fishing practices. Further stressors from hunting, over-fishing, man-made pollution, human-introduced invasive species and the climate crisis further threaten the resilience and recovery of many important species and ecosystems. To put this crisis into context, only 4% of all mammals on earth are wild mammals. 

The consequences of losing biodiversity are far-reaching and severe. As much as our human-centric approach has led to us viewing ourselves as separate from nature, we rely on it with every breath, bite of food and resource we use. Air, water, soil, food, and materials are directly reliant on our planet’s natural processes remaining healthy and in-balance. Exploring some of the benefits of healthy and biodiverse ecosystems can really put into context how important it is that we address this crisis: 

Variety is the spice of life 

Biodiverse environments support more complex ecosystems, which improves overall resilience. As the number of species and communities grow, there is a higher chance of any one of them having the traits that enable them to adapt to a changing environment. The same is true for resilience against other stressors such as disease and the introduction of pollution into ecosystems. Productive, healthy and biodiverse assemblages are best-placed to try to adapt to changing conditions. 

The backbone of big business

Businesses are dependent on nature and the services it provides which are finite and unique. Nature currently contributes to more than half the world’s GDP and not protecting and restoring nature will damage future economic prosperity. After many years of businesses taking resources from the planet without giving back, there is growing consensus among consumers, organisations and regulatory frameworks that the private sector needs to play a part in ensuring we have a healthy, sustainable and biodiverse planet well into the future. For example, at COP15, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was agreed which includes text on the private sector investing in biodiversity. As a result, protecting nature should be high on investors and regulators agendas.

Supporting health and wellbeing 

Well-functioning and biodiverse environments support human health by providing nutrition, clean water and medicine. Without pollinators, we will struggle to grow some fruits and vegetables including apples, berries and kale. Biodiverse ecosystems have also played a crucial role in traditional medicines and drug development throughout the years. Ensuring nature is part of our everyday lives is also extremely beneficial for both our mental and physical health. It can help reduce stress, promote improved mood and can help people easily include more physical activity in their lives through activities such as walking and wildlife watching. Biodiversity also plays an important role in disease prevention. By forcing animals to live in closer and closer proximity by removing their habitats and reducing diversity, we have reduced nature’s resilience, increasing the opportunity for diseases to spread. Optimal rates for microbe spillover occur when 40% of the forest cover disappears. In contrast, greater biodiversity reduces disease transmission due to a ‘dilution effect’ making it harder for a single pathogen to spread or dominate. 

Nature’s unique value

Biodiversity provides many clear benefits to humans and is essential to our survival, but even despite this, we should still be motivated to protect nature ‘just because’. This planet is absolutely wondrous and full of complicated relationships between plants, animals and ecosystems that all work in harmony to survive and thrive together. We share this planet with intricate creatures who feel pleasure, pain and a desire to survive. Some have strong family bonds or a clear sense of home and some undertake wonderous journeys across the planet that we still can’t fully understand or comprehend. We need to understand how magical biodiversity is and find ways to live peaceably with the natural world. Nature and biodiversity work in harmony to support living thriving ecosystems and we need to find ways to reintegrate ourselves into this glorious and enduring synergy.

Investment in nature and biodiversity is also an investment into ourselves, our economy, our wellbeing and our futures. Follow along for Part 2 to find out how business can help support and restore global biodiversity.