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TOP STORIES

FEATURE: Biodiversity crediting to imminently face up to the challenges of bundling and stacking with carbon

Biodiversity crediting will soon have to face up to the challenge of when to bundle or stack mitigation outcomes alongside carbon, experts have told Carbon Pulse, with the sometimes controversial practice expected to come to the fore of the conversation as the nascent nature market looks to scale.

Data startup partners with voluntary carbon standard to launch biodiversity certificates by year-end

The Plan Vivo Foundation and biodiversity data startup Pivotal have announced a new partnership as they aim to deliver their first biodiversity certificates by the end of 2023, the companies announced Thursday.

MARKET

INTERVIEW: Startup begins fair trade biodiversity credit pre-sales

A US-based startup working with Indigenous small farmers in the Amazon on conservation initiatives has begun pre-sales of its fair trade biodiversity credits, while expecting its indicator species biodiversity methodology to earn its first market standard certification by October.

First African plastic project registered with Verra

A plastic collection and recycling project in Senegal has been registered with Verra, the first on the African continent to qualify for earning the standard’s Waste Collection Credits (WCCs) and Waste Recycling Credits (WRCs).

BUSINESS & FINANCE

UN, Sweden launch platform to mobilise biodiversity finance in Arab region

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the Swedish government have launched a platform designed to mobilise finance for biodiversity protection across the Arab region.

UK financials form group for nature recovery to drive finance

Some 20 financial institutions have launched a group that will work towards supporting the British government’s target of delivering finance for nature recovery in the UK as well as developing high-integrity domestic nature markets.

German environment ministry, KfW bank pledge €50 mln to support natural climate measures on company premises

Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUV) and state-owned bank KfW on Friday announced they will support businesses in their efforts to integrate natural climate protection measures within their premises.

New $50 mln fund established to protect national parks in developing countries

A US non-profit has launched a $50 million fund that will focus on protecting endangered national parks in developing countries in a bid to help meet UN goals on biodiversity and climate.

Dove partners with investor-led collective to protect Southeast Asian rainforests

Unilever’s skincare brand Dove has teamed up with the Singapore-based Rimba Collective to protect rainforests across Southeast Asia over the next five years.

The Nature Conservancy to scale up Asia-Pacific nature-based solutions

Global non-profit The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has opened offices in Singapore with plans to hire at least 20 staff members in order to roll out nature-based projects and activities across the Asia-Pacific region to address climate change and biodiversity loss.

MARKET

Getting tense – Tensions are said to be escalating over reports that the Liberian government is in talks with UAE-based Blue Carbon to grant it access to a million hectares of crucial forest land to develop for carbon credit generation. The country’s opposition Liberian People’s Party (LPP), led by lawyer Tiawan Saye Gongloe, has urgently appealed for a cessation of these negotiations until proper protocols are in place, according to Front Page Africa. (Carbon Pulse)

Laying down the law – Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has tasked two ministries with drawing up appropriate frameworks for carbon credit management, including a directive specifically addressing rules for trading forestry credits. The move comes after market participants have previously said the lack of proper regulations are turning potential investors off the Southeast Asian country’s nature-based solutions opportunities. (Carbon Pulse)

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Protection compensation – In Australia, the Victorian state government has been ordered to pay A$92 mln ($63 mln) in compensation to a prominent family after it added environmental protections to their land, reducing its overall value. The Dennis family – who are well known builders and developers – had owned the properties in Melbourne’s outer west privately and through their family business since 1984 and had used the land for agriculture. But in 2010 the Victorian government created the Western Grassland Reserve – a 15,000 ha area designed to protect critically-threatened native grasslands and endangered, dependent species. To do this, it added environmental and public acquisition overlays in the planning scheme to privately-owned land that contained native grasslands. That triggered compensation claims from some of the affected landholders who argued their properties had been devalued by that change in land use. (ABC)

Tourism tax – The Negros Occidental provincial government in the Philippines is eyeing to collect an environmental fee from tourists as part of the financing solutions for local biodiversity conservation and sustainable environmental protection projects. The initiative is among the areas of cooperation identified in the MOU between the province and the UNDP Philippines with support from the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) Project. As of last Thursday, various activities have been outlined where the cooperation would be pursued, following the signing of the MOU on July 6. (Philippine News Agency)

POLICY

For better or worse – As Biodiversity Pulse Weekly went to the press Thursday, India’s parliament was about to vote on a proposed amendment to its 2002 Biodiversity Act and the Forest Conservation Act of 1980, intended to strengthen the nation’s legal nature framework. However, the authors in an op-ed published in Mongabay last week claimed the proposed amendments jeopardise the rights of communities as well as India’s progress towards its biodiversity and climate goals.

Charity demands – A group of 80 nature charities has initiated a campaign calling on politicians to introduce a comprehensive five-point plan to restore nature by 2030. The coalition of 80 UK charities, comprising the National Trust, The Wildlife Trusts, RSPB, and the Woodland Trust, has urged all political parties to include the five-point proposals in their general election manifestos, in a collective effort to fulfil public demand for heightened environmental ambition and to achieve key nature goals by 2050. The five key requests include doubling the budget for wildlife-friendly farming to £6bn, implementing a Nature Recovery Obligation that holds polluters accountable for nature restoration, and initiating a large-scale scheme for creating green jobs. (Edie)

SCIENCE & TECH

Off the edge – The plant collection made by an amateur Mallee botanist has helped scientists rediscover a plant thought to be extinct in Victoria, Australia. The last verified sighting of the bearded flatsedge or Cyperus squarrosus in Victoria was in 1953, until botanists spotted it last year after the Murray River flooded. Professor Tim Entwisle, director and chief executive of Victoria’s Royal Botanical Gardens, said the exact location of the discovery was kept “secret” to protect the few plants found and allow scientists to study its ecology. (ABC)

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