Japan has started the first phase in a pilot for companies seeking to generate certificates by supporting government-certified biodiversity projects that they can use in reports under the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).
The country’s environment ministry-led 30 by 30 Alliance, which includes a large number of conservation groups and business organisations, has developed the scheme, which will be rolled out in full scale in FY2025 if the pilot is successful.
Under the pilot, which began last week, the government will issue “support certificates” to corporations providing various types of support to Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) sites, for example through donations, purchasing naming rights, or investing in them.
Similar to biodiversity credits or offsets in nature, the support certificates will not be tradeable in a market, but can be used by corporations wishing to document support for biodiversity activities under the TNFD framework.
The support certificate scheme is built around Japan’s focus on using OECMs, which the East Asian nation intends to play a key role in meeting its Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) target of protecting 30% of its land and marine areas by 2030.
Last month, the environment ministry certified 122 such OECMs, which are places that protect and conserve nature and biodiversity even though that is not their primary purpose.
A number of different types of forest, bird sanctuaries, green spaces on company sites, urban green areas, golf courses, ski resorts, water ponds, river beds, building rooftops, and nature-based carbon sequestration projects are among areas that qualify under Japan’s OECM programme.
Each certified project area will receive a government certificate, with 586 government organisations, non-profits, corporations, and others having signalled their interest in certifying current areas or creating spots that would qualify.
The support certificate scheme is primarily targeting companies that wish to contribute, but don’t own land plots that can host projects.
FINDING THE ONE
Documents published this week by the 30 by 30 Alliance’s Economic Incentives Review Committee showed that the first pilot round for the support certificates began last week.
Those who have received their OECM certification can by Nov. 27 send a short video to the government presenting their project and the type of the support they need.
Videos will then be made available to watch for companies interested in gaining support certificates, who will have until the end of the month to review the films and notify officials who they would like to back.
The environment ministry will then spend the first half of December matching projects with supporters, and after announcing “winning” matches, details of the support will be sorted out in early 2024 before the first support certificates are issued next March.
Support certificates will include basic information about the project and supporters, and the size and type of support, but no attempt at quantifying the biodiversity outcome of the support.
Several other pilot rounds will be held before the 30 by 30 Alliance hopes to launch the scheme in full scale in FY2025, with adjustments based on the pilot outcomes.
Japan is currently protecting 20.5% of its land area and 13.3% of the sea.
The 122 designated OECM sites that were certified in October covered a total area of 77,000 hectares, with a second batch expected before the start of the next financial year on Apr. 1, 2024.
By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com
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