A Venice-based conservation group is eyeing the biodiversity credit market to save the Italian city’s lagoon ecosystems from destruction driven by shipping and mass tourism.

Non-profit We are here Venice (WahV), in partnership with Murano-based glass firm LagunaB, have finalised the implementation of an Australian benchmarking methodology to measure the biodiversity baseline within the city’s salt marshes, in a bid to gather solid data and attract high-integrity investments for restoration.

The initiative, called Vital and contributing to the EU’s Horizon 2020 WaterLANDS project, is now in the process of defining a financial scheme to support the monitoring activities, targeting the biodiversity credit market.

“The aim of Vital is to offer a methodology and financing strategy for the necessary additionality that, in turn, will increase the value and resilience infills, as well as the overall health of the Venice lagoon system and make Venice more viable as a living city,” Jane da Mosto, co-founder and executive director of WahV, told Carbon Pulse.

WahV is piloteing the initiative across several sites within the 550-square kilometre lagoon, with each area covering around 7 hectares.

“The area covered with salt marshes is now just one-sixth of what it used to be,” she said.

“There is an enormous potential for reconstructed wetland creation in the lagoon, and we consider biodiversity credits as one of the possible mechanisms to support the Vital initiative.”

Da Mosto said the challenge is to demonstrate the long-term sustainability of nature restoration for local communities against the immediate economic gains from intensifying shipping activities that conflict with the health of the lagoon.

“Often these instruments [such as biodiversity credits] are applied to remote, less developed areas of the world, and it is challenging trying to demonstrate the advantages of this approach in an almost over-developed economy like Venice,” da Mosto said.

“Those mechanisms are the polar opposite of the current economic model that is forcing Venice to depend on mass tourism, and the consequences of this – exemplified by the cruise sector – are damaging the lagoon and threatening the viability and quality of everyday life for residents.”

The Venice lagoon is the largest coastal wetland in Italy and harbours a unique range of biotypes, slat marshes, sandbanks, reeds, seagrass meadows, and expanses of mud.

The ecosystem integrity is threatened by the dramatic loss of salt marshes, ongoing erosion, and the limited addition of new sediments, according to Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. These effects are exacerbated by urbanisation, local water traffic, and the dredging of canals.

WahV has also signed a technical partnership with Deme, a Belgian engineering company active in developing and adopting nature-based solutions.

AUSTRALIAN METHODOLOGY

The implemented methodology, developed by Judith Fisher, a professor at the University of Western Australia, focused on how to select and monitor the correct indices in different kinds of ecosystems worldwide.

As the Vital team underlined, establishing a scientifically robust baseline measure as benchmarking of key biodiversity indicators before kickstarting restoration efforts in the salt marshes is crucial to assess the effectiveness of Vital’s restoration projects – and, therefore, attract high-integrity investments.

Defining the baseline is one of the biggest challenges in nature markets, as scientists still have a relatively narrow knowledge of the existing species and limited funds to analyse the environment.

Without a proper assessment, it would be almost impossible to measure uplifts driven by conservation and restoration activities.

“The methodology is about having a really comprehensive measurement of the state of biodiversity before you start restoration,” Fisher told Carbon Pulse.

“That will allow comparison over time, enabling the assessment of changes and the effectiveness of restoration efforts.”

Within the lagoon’s salt marshes, the group is monitoring around 20 indicators, including dominant and invasive species to measure the overall health of the plant community, as well as the drainage capacity of an area.

“There are some kinds of algae that actually contribute to the overall fertility of the ground, and other kinds of algae that make it difficult for plants to grow,” da Mosto said.

Scientists leveraged technologies such as mapping software, time lapse videos, and drones.

Fisher, who’s also a member of the European biodiversity partnership Biodiversa+ and among the advisors for the implementation of the EU’s Nature Restoration Law, said the methodology has been tested on over 50 sites and 15 different ecosystems in Western Australia.

It is currently in the process of being accredited under the Accounting For Nature (AFN) framework, a move that will help WahV to scale investments through a crediting scheme, she said.

“Once we get the accreditation, it would be possible to define units for Venice’s salt marshes and, therefore, the credits,” Fisher said, adding that AFN is also aligned with the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) reporting framework.

SCREENING PROCESS

According to da Mosto, Vital won’t have difficulty finding businesses eager to finance restoration activities in the lagoon, as many companies are keen to be associated with the slogan “saving Venice”.

However, WahV said they would cooperate only with ‘nature positive’ businesses in order to avoid greenwashing risks.

“It’s not about finding businesses that want to pay for our activities, but screening them to make sure that our partners will be as rigorous as we are.”

“Companies will need to demonstrate that they’ve gone as far as they can in reducing their own impacts on biodiversity as a precondition to buying our credits, and my concern is that it will not be that easy to find someone eligible.”

Furthermore, another challenge faced by the Vital group is to align with the local authorities in defining the proper financial mechanism, as the lagoon is a UNESCO World Heritage site as well.

“These areas are entirely within the public domain, so we have to see what can fit with the public authorities and ensure that any financing provides additionality and doesn’t substitute the obligation of the public authorities to protect the lagoon,” da Mosto said.

“We’ll ensure to make everybody work together in the best possible way.”

By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com

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