Environmental trading platform Regen Network has sold two-thirds of the biodiversity credits available from a jaguar conservation pilot over a 10,000-hectare area in the Ecuadorian jungle, it said on Wednesday.

During the pre-sale launch event on Mar. 2 in Denver, Colorado, attendees pre-purchased $16,000 worth of credits, with another $27,500 committed by Apr. 15, totalling approximately two-thirds of the initial units available, Regen Network stated.

The company expects to sell out the credits generated from the pilot, Gregory Landua, CEO of Regen Network told Carbon Pulse.

“We’ll probably see another corporate purchaser or two, and I expect that will fill the purchases,” he said.

Early supporters include agave spirits producer Altos Planos and private long-term clients of Regen Network. The issuance of the non-transferable credits allows early supporters to fund the project through a pre-financing mechanism.

Ecuadorian project developer Fundacion Pachamama, and Indigenous Peoples from the local Sharamentsa community, helped to create the programme.

The credits have been informed by the peer-reviewed Ecosystem Regeneration Associates Biodiversity Stewardship Methodology, a blockchain-based initiative that can generate carbon and ecological credits.

The Regen Network Registry is selling the units for $0.88 each, with a projected issuance of 75,300 credits for the 2024 project activities.

“That’s the projection based on the estimated density of jaguars, the quality of reporting, the performance on the cultural community, and education goals that the community has set, which complement the process,” Landua said.

“Our biodiversity credits scheme looks more like a contribution-based mechanism than a biodiversity offset one,” Landua added.

Purchasing a biodiversity credit means receiving a certificate that proves a contribution to conservation efforts in the Ecuadorian jungle, he said.

“For now, it is a hybrid instrument between a payment for a results-based funding mechanism and a credit.”

JAGUAR METHOD

Jaguars are classified as an endangered species and are considered important to the environment as an “umbrella species”. The protection of umbrella species indirectly encompasses the preservation of many other species in their habitats.

ERA’s methodology sets the basis for crediting projects that protect umbrella species, and includes specific guidelines for applying that methodology to jaguars in South America.

According to a recent study published by Biological Conservation, perfecting the monitoring criteria of umbrella species will enhance biodiversity conservation efforts, leading to more efficient and cost-saving programmes.

Regen and ERA are also piloting their methodology in Pantanal, Brazil, with non-profit organisation Instituto Homem Pantaneiro. The learning from these two pilots will be incorporated into an updated version of the methodology, as the CEO of ERA, Hannah Simmons, said on LinkedIn.

Jaguars have also been addressed as ‘indicator species’ in a separate biodiversity credit methodology developed by Colombian credit standard Cercarbono, based on the Indicator Species Biodiversity Methodology (ISBM) developed by US-based Savimbo. Unlike umbrella species, indicator species are defined as species that help measure the condition of the habitat in which they live.

INDIGENOUS-LED

The Sharamentsa community, belonging to the Achuar Nation, is “pivotal” in this biodiversity project, seeking to create a sustainable model that integrates ecological conservation with economic development.

“We think that a biodiversity credit mechanism will help us not only with the monitoring of the jaguars, but also with several other activities,” Nunkui Veronica Tentets, a Sharamentsa community leader, told Carbon Pulse.

These activities include cultural, agricultural, and food sovereignty goals, as well as conservation targets, they said.

Calculations of how many credits get issued for the project build on a Sharamentsa democratic process aimed at identifying what the community would like to achieve, Regen’s Landua added. The pricing of the credits is also based on a budget estimation for the community management project.

Fundacion Pachamama will work with the Sharamentsa community to provide local people with more expertise in using specific technologies.

“We have been helping with new technologies for three years, and the community already knows how to use drones, GPS, and trail camera,” Joel Koupermann from the Fundacion Pachamama told Carbon Pulse.

“They’re starting to use smartphones to register information in digital form, and soon they will be the ones teaching other communities in their own language, and with their own understanding, how to move in the forest.”

According to Domingo Peas, president of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance, the pilot conservation programme is a precursor to broader conservation efforts. The alliance is a network of 30 Indigenous nations across Ecuador and Peru who are among the partners of the initiative.

“Its success could lead the way for initiatives such as the Achuar Nation Forest Generation Fund, covering 650,000 ha, and potentially expand to encompass the entire Amazon Sacred Headwater Alliance, totalling 30 million ha,” Peas said in a statement.

By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com

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