At the United Nations biodiversity conference currently underway in Colombia, an international panel has published a framework with guidelines to scale up “biodiversity credits,” an emerging financial mechanism to tackle the global loss of nature. Biodiversity credits are meant to be a way for companies to invest in projects that protect or restore nature, earning a credit for each “unit” of habitat preserved. This concept gained traction following the last U.N. biodiversity conference, or COP15, in 2022, which identified a $700 billion annual funding shortfall for conservation and aimed to mobilize at least $200 billion per year by 2030. Biodiversity credits are seen as a way to involve the private sector in closing this finance gap However, various scientists, activists and Indigenous peoples’ organizations have raised concerns that biodiversity credits could suffer from the same issues as the carbon credit market, including inadequate monitoring, limited transparency, land grabbing, unjust negotiations, and violations of the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs). The new framework, launched by the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (IAPB) at this year’s biodiversity conference, COP16, aims to avoid these issues. It lays down principles and guidelines to develop and scale up “high integrity” biodiversity credit markets. “High integrity” biodiversity credits, the framework notes, should be verified certificates that represent positive biodiversity outcomes that are rigorously measured and validated. These credits must also prioritize good governance, as well as fairness and inclusivity, ensuring that IPLCs actively participate in and benefit from biodiversity credit projects. The…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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