A Brazilian state government has announced the upcoming implementation of a legal regulation to offset corporate impacts on nature, making it the first state in the country to establish a biodiversity crediting scheme.
Developed in partnership with the private sector, the mechanism will initially be piloted in 25 private reserves in Parana state, dubbed Reservas Particulares do Patrimonio Natural (RPPNs), which will generate the credits through conservation activities.
The state government said the reserves have been selected based on strict technical criteria, though it has not yet disclosed any documents.
The complete proposal will be presented during the COP16 UN biodiversity summit, due to be held in Cali, Colombia over Oct. 21-Nov.1, with implementation planned for 2025.
“Initially, the scheme will benefit previously selected RPPNs, but the intention is to expand the programme in the municipal, state, and federal parks,” said Rafael Andreguetto, director of the Department of Environmental Policies at the Secretary of State for Sustainable Development (Sedest).
Andreguetto said in a statement that the government is working on assessing how much pressure companies put on the environment, whether by the exploitation of natural resources such as trees and water, or energy consumption.
“We’ll use the information to quantify the number of credits needed,” he said, adding that the mechanism is expected to inspire other regions and contribute significantly to global efforts to preserve biodiversity.
The state’s administration designed the programme in partnership with the Life Institute, a Brazilian organisation working on biodiversity credits.
During the COP15 in Montreal, the Institute launched the Life Business and Biodiversity Coalition, a group of companies committed to including biodiversity conservation in their sustainability goals. It includes local businesses such as cosmetic firm Grupo Boticario and energy giant Itaipu Binacional.
In recent months, other biodiversity credit initiatives have been launched in Brazil in partnership with local authorities, as the country prepares to host the G20 summit and the COP30 UN climate summit in 2025.
In April, the Rio municipality partnered with the UK-based Nature and People Foundation (NPF) and a Brazilian financial institution to develop an urban biodiversity credit programme and standard.
The aim is to leverage biodiversity restoration to help city institutions and communities tackle major health and nature threats related to deforestation, such as dengue fever and heat waves.
As for the voluntary market, a number of pilots have launched across Latin America ahead of the COP16, including ERA’s methodology currently being piloted in Pantanal, Brazil with non-profit Instituto Homem Pantaneiro, two projects in Argentina’s Atlantic Forest and the Gran Chaco, and the Terrasos initiative across several Colombian habitat banks from which it recently listed 10,000 credits on the Regen Network platform.
In addition, France-headquartered nature-based project developer Fronterra began piloting biodiversity credits in a large area in the Peruvian Amazon, while Argentine conservation organisation Fundacion Tu Arbol (FTA) partnered with French-headquartered environmental company Nat5 to generate biodiversity and water credits within an area of 1.2 million ha in the Andes.
By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com
** Click here to sign up to our twice-weekly biodiversity newsletter **
