CreditNature has achieved a “world first” by receiving accreditation from an independent accounting framework for its ecosystem restoration methodology, in a move that could help scale nature markets, it said Wednesday.
Sydney-based non-profit Accounting for Nature has accredited CreditNature’s method for measuring the recovery of land-based ecosystems in restoration projects in Europe.
Accounting for Nature has a catalogue of accredited methodologies for classes of native vegetation, native fauna, and soil – but CreditNature’s framework is the first on ecosystems specifically it has approved.
“The method will be used to baseline, forecast and validate changes in ecosystem condition on a range of landholdings, and the ecosystem condition units generated will be connected to nature credits initially,” said Cain Blythe, CEO of CreditNature.
“We are currently testing a footprint calculator with corporates to enable them to determine how to set nature positive targets, and work out how many nature credits to invest in,” he told Carbon Pulse.
The method has been applied on over 20,000 hectares of land in Scotland and England, with a potential pipeline of 100,000 ha that could use it in future, Blythe said.
“We are in advanced discussions with corporates and financial institutions regarding the use of the method in relation to investment into nature restoration, and generation of nature credits.”
The accredited method has the potential to “significantly scale nature markets”, CreditNature said in a press release.
BEYOND SCOTLAND
CreditNature has won a CivTech contract from the Scottish government to establish a market for private biodiversity investment, with its first credits set to issue from the country using the Natural Asset Recovery Investment Analytics (NARIA) framework.
“CreditNature receiving accreditation from Accounting for Nature is an important step to ensuring that nature credits meet our high standards,” Peter Phillips, head of natural capital land management policy for the Scottish government, said in a statement.
“We welcome this achievement which, via our CivTech challenge with CreditNature, will help Scotland to keep pace with global developments in biodiversity markets and continue to lead innovation in this space.”
CreditNature is using its ecosystem restoration methodology in two investable projects and multiple pilots in Scotland, Blythe said.
As the accreditation covers Europe, CreditNature is exploring options for exporting the model to other countries on the continent, he said.
Last week, Scotland reiterated its support for biodiversity credits in exploratory plans for how it will create a flow of investable natural capital initiatives.
STANDARDISED SCORING
CreditNature’s method for measuring ecosystem conditions, part of its NARIA framework, enables the disclosure of “consistent, time-verified reporting of ecosystem integrity”, it said in a press release.
The method measures the indicators of bird trait diversity, predator-prey interaction, landscape connectivity, vegetation spatial diversity, using both remote sensing and field data.
Underpinned by Accounting for Nature’s key metric, Econd – used by several other accredited methodologies – CreditNature’s method scores ecosystems from 0, fully degraded, to 100, best possible state.
Econd aims to deliver a standardised scoring system ensures consistency across landscapes globally, according to Accounting for Nature.
While attention to the voluntary biodiversity credit market has ramped up after the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), most companies are still reluctant to translate their interest into transactions.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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