A blockchain marketplace for enabling transparent sales of biodiversity credits is almost ready to begin selling, following a partnership between credit developer RePlanet with a certification organisation and a blockchain company, Carbon Pulse has learned.
Switzerland-based nature value chain certifier Integrity Certificates, and blockchain organisation GOSH, are collaborating with RePlanet on building a platform that could sell biodiversity credits at scale.
The companies are developing a decentralised peer-to-peer exchange that should enable users to trade assets through blockchain transaction via the GOSH platform, without the opacity of an intermediary.
The infrastructure for enabling the transactions is ready now, with the first sales likely to happen within a year depending on when the credits are ready to issue, although not necessarily from UK-based RePlanet, Frank Sykes, founder of Integrity Certificates told Carbon Pulse.
Integrity Certificates is in dialogue with companies hosting methodologies other than RePlanet, which uses the methodology of its non-profit partner Wallacea Trust, though Sykes could not reveal which ones.
Companies can register to buy biodiversity credits in advance now, using the GOSH platform, although no sales have yet taken place.
Blockchain is a transparent way of permanently digitally recording transactions, with no risk of market actors editing key data on projects after its initial entry to the database.
“The decentralised environment is auditable, and traceable, so that brings trust and integrity to the credits for the market, so there’s no lying that can happen – as may have happened in the past with carbon credits,” said Sykes.
The marketplace includes monitoring, reporting, and verification data about credits, alongside peer-reviewed verification of claims using the Biodiversity Futures Initiative (BFI). This initiative independently peer reviews claims using the Wallacea Trust’s framework.
“All the data for the biodiversity gains will be traced back directly from the credit, it can’t be tampered with,” he said.
As the biodiversity credit blockchain exchange will be public rather than private, it will have better transparency than existing marketplaces for carbon credits based on similar technology, he claimed.
The decentralised platform aims to help to unlock financing of biodiversity credits to boost capital flows into nature positive initiatives.
Mitja Goroshevsky, GOSH founder, said: “Only with end-to-end decentralisation can we be certain that every step we take to saving the planet’s biodiversity is guaranteed to be reflected in the credits people buy.”
BIODIVERSITY CREDITS
RePlanet has 11,033,980 biodiversity credits under development that would have a value of $95,015,300 if generated at posted price levels, Dan Exton, director of strategy at RePlanet told Carbon Pulse.
“It is important to note that these are estimates both on credit issuances and prices – we price our credits currently based on the cost of delivering the project, hence the varying price per credit, and that could of course change as projects develop further,” Exton said.
“Estimating biodiversity uplift from nature restoration projects is extremely challenging, we’ve tried to be conservative but these are still very much estimates.”
In February, RePlanet said its partnerships with other companies on five biodiversity credit initiatives around the world could each generate $10 mln or more.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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