Presenting Biodiversity Pulse, Carbon Pulse’s free newsletter on the biodiversity market. It’s a twice-weekly summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. Subscribe here
All articles in this edition are free to read (no subscription required).
TOP STORY
INTERVIEW: Mining companies want biodiversity credits to make nature positive claims
Mining companies want biodiversity credits to enable them to go beyond offsetting to make nature positive claims, according to an executive at UK-headquartered The Biodiversity Consultancy (TBC).
MARKET
Regen Network weighs taking on board Terrasos biodiversity credits
Environmental trading platform Regen Network is lining up a vote among its community members to decide whether to start listing units generated by Colombia-based Terrasos as a first outright biodiversity credits on the platform, with others to follow.
NSW biodiversity market “not performing well”, needs overhaul, report says
An independent government body has outlined five areas where New South Wales’ controversial state biodiversity market scheme could improve in a report published Tuesday.
BUSINESS & FINANCE
Ugandan project eligible for FSC-certified nature claim sponsorship
A forestry project in Uganda has obtained Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified accreditation for its soil conservation, enabling it to ask for sponsorship for its work.
Clear signs of change in nature finance market, paper says
The market for nature-based solutions is growing in demand and scale, as larger institutional investment managers begin to enter, an academic paper has said.
Nature start-up raises $1.6 mln to scale AI biodiversity monitoring tech
A UK-based start-up has raised $1.6 million in pre-seed investments to scale its AI technology that it says can convert high-resolution landscape imagery to actionable insights.
POLICY
UN confirms Colombia as host for 2024 biodiversity COP
Next year’s COP16 will be hosted by Colombia, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has confirmed.
Western Australian government moves to protect 400,000 ha of old growth forest
Western Australia will end commercial logging in its old growth and native forests from the beginning of next year, according to a government plan released Friday.
MARKET
For sale – Voluntary carbon credit platform Emsurge has become the latest in the space to offer clients access to the emerging biodiversity credit market, announcing plans this week to make trade in credits from company Savimbo available. The US-based outfit, which creates land-based credits in cooperation with smallholder farmers and Indigenous groups in the Colombian Amazon, recently was listed on carbon blockchain platforms Senken and Dovu, and has been in talks with Xpansiv on getting listed on its exchange once standard Cercarbono issues its first Savimbo credits.
BUSINESS & FINANCE
Flagging down – SBTi has made some “minor” updates to its Forest, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) Target-Setting Guidance with Version 1.1 aiming to make the process more accessible. Changes include more clarity on target validation, sub-targets for commodities to be met separately from the core FLAG target, and more information on the data used in targets.
Seed money – The French government and Conservation International, supported by the Rob Walton Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, launched the €115 mln Seed Fund for Forests, Nature, and Climate on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai. The fund, which aims to grow to €200 mln, will support governments in kickstarting natural climate solutions as part of a new effort to promote investment in the protection of nature, an announcement said. The Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Ghana, and Papua New Guinea were among the first countries to announce their “Country Packages for Forests, Nature, and Climate”.
Joining the club – Greening Australia has become the nation’s third carbon project developer in a short time to join the push for setting up a Nature Positive Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). CRCs are government, academia, and private sector partnerships that receive public funding for a period. The initiative to set up a nature positive one has primarily been driven by universities, though developers Climate Friendly and Regenco earlier this month took up key roles. Greening Australia said it sees the nature positive concept as “crucial to directing impactful environmental action and filling critical knowledge gaps in market-driven restoration”.
Big backing – Keidanren, Japan’s most powerful business lobby, has updated its biodiversity declaration/action guidelines to align it with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The group spans over 1,500 companies, 107 national industry organisations, and 47 regional economic organisations. The update last week included establishing a Keidanren Nature Conservation Council, which aims to help set Japan on track to meet its 30×30 target through ensuring corporations take measures to mitigate biodiversity loss.
Howdy partner – French bank BNP Paribas and Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands have signed a multi-year partnership to protect and restore biodiversity, they announced Monday. Their cooperation will be focused around four areas: Research and data, education and awareness, financial innovation, and science-based metrics for decision-making in finance and business. In a statement, BNP Paribas said the partnership will allow it to help its clients better understand and map their impacts and dependencies on nature, laying the foundation for action.
A kelping hand – Norwegian company Ava Ocean has been granted a 47 mln NOK ($4.5 mln) grant from the Norwegian government for its Ocean Green project, which harvests invasive sea urchins along the country’s northern coast as part of efforts to revitalise lost kelp forests. Earlier this year, Ava Ocean attracted investment more than double the size of the new government grant from the Ocean 14 Capital Fund.
Added clout – Ten more financial institutions with over €300 bln in assets under management have signed on to the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation (FfB) pledge to protect and restore biodiversity through their finance activities and investments, FfB announced Tuesday. That takes the total to 163 signatories from 25 countries with €21.7 trillion of combined assets under management. The new signatories are Aegon UK, Big Picture Financial Planning, BPCE Assurances, CDC Croissance, Clear Skies Investment Management, Climate Resilient Africa Fund, ITMO Ltd, Jaguar Legacy Fund GP, NaturAlly AG, and Sekerbank In addition, two of them – BPCE and CDC – also joined the foundation as members. FfB now has 76 members.
POLICY
New money – Australia’s environment ministry has made up to A$109 mln ($73.3 mln) available in grants through its Urban Rivers and Catchments Program. Some A$51 mln will be granted in individual lots of A$150,000-2 mln to small- to medium-sized community-based projects, while the rest will be distributed A$2-10 mln at the time, but require a dollar-for-dollar matching cash contribution for the grant amount. Projects can apply until Feb. 13.
Water is important – Materiality of freshwater is under the spotlight following guidance from TNFD and SBTN, consultancy BSR has said in an article with writer Tim Smedley. Water scarcity is “knocking on the door of a lot of countries that aren’t expecting it”, with Belgium having higher water stress than Syria according to recent research by WRI. The main driver of water risk is mismanagement. The best solution is nature-based restoration by, for example, restoring floodplains.
SCIENCE & TECH
Cleaning fishes – A project aiming to improve the understanding of the role of ‘cleaning’ fish in the conservation of Atlantic biodiversity using artificial intelligence has won funding for three years. The University of Lisbon initiative will receive €300,000. The research aims to better understand how a few species of fish who remove parasites, dead tissue or food debris from the skin, scales or teeth of other fish benefit the ecosystem health of the ocean. (EurekAlert)
Ancient nutrients – Ancient human settlements have supported biodiversity in countries in Africa by becoming grazing destinations for animals, research by UK’s Bournemouth University has found. Human activity produced higher levels of “nutrient hotspots” to create more biodiverse environments that antelopes now call home, the research found.
Got a tip? How about some feedback? Email us at news@carbon-pulse.com
