The Species Protection Index (SPI), among the indicators of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), could have a crucial role in building the foundations of the nascent biodiversity credit market, its developers told Carbon Pulse.

Developed and managed by the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change (BGC), the index measures how well countries’ protected areas (PAs) conserve habitats for vertebrate, invertebrate, and plant species.

It represents the only species-specific indicator for Target 3 of the GBF – the one addressing the protection of at least 30% of land and sea by 2030 – and the only indicator that is quantitatively explicit, which means it makes sure that countries are protecting the right 30% of land.

According to Walter Jetz, director of BGC and scientific chair at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, the SPI can have a unique role in the biodiversity credit markets as well, as the index allows for quantifying the significance of a particular location for safeguarding species globally – a key issue within the nascent market.

“Our index can say how important your location is in contributing to conservation success or compound biodiversity outcomes,” Jetz told Carbon Pulse.

Claire Hoffmann, head of partnerships for the BGC, agrees that there is a role for indicators like the SPI in the biodiversity credit markets, as they can inform whether the locations and species being targeted in the methodologies are actually effective at driving positive outcomes.

“The SPI lets us know whether we are actually protecting an area that includes the ranges of important species, and how successfully our overall coverage is at a global, national, and sub-national scale,” she told Carbon Pulse.

“We know that the markets are coming, and what we can do [to make it reliable] is identify species that have the highest need for additional PA coverage.”

According to Hoffman and Jetz, BGC is in the process of exploring potential partnerships with different organisations, including the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and standards that may include the SPI in their protocols.

“We’re increasingly able to provide biodiversity measurements that can be useful for large markets,” Jetz said.

“Over the last couple of years, and the last nine months in particular, we’ve had a lot of conversations with people in the nature-based solution space, including carbon and biodiversity credits.”

BGC is also in touch with several corporations that are looking at SPI for informing their supply chain strategies and implementing nature-positive initiatives, though they preferred not to disclose their names.

“This is a topic that we will be discussing significantly at COP16,” Hoffman said.

The COP16 UN biodiversity summit is set to be an important step for biodiversity market actors, as promoting dialogue with companies will be among the top priorities for early players during the summit side-events, experts told Carbon Pulse this week.

“I think that it’s essential that actual scientists that are addressing global biodiversity measurement quantitatively will be actively involved in the development of the market,” Jetz said.

HOW SPI WORKS

More specifically, the BGC currently focuses primarily on terrestrial vertebrates – animals that possess a spinal column or vertebra and live predominantly on land – although they are also processing data for some plant species and marine vertebrates.

“What we do is to identify a range of how much area we expect a particular species to cover, and where the area is,” Hoffman said.

“So, for species with very small ranges, we would set a target of 100% of that range covered to accurately protect the species. For species with very large ranges, it would be a smaller percentage.”

For instance, the SPI set a target of 15% area protection for species with range areas greater than 250,000 square kilometres.

Furthermore, the index allows experts to look at how much of the existing PA coverage overlaps with the species range, and whether or not the target for each species has been met.

“We also consider other areas in our calculations, including Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs), and are working on further incorporating others such as sub-national PAs,” Hoffman said.

Notably, the index does not necessarily track changes in species populations in certain areas, although Hoffman said there is hope of incorporating this data into the indicator in the future.

“We can’t necessarily say with the SPI that the PA coverage in a given location has resulted in an increase in the species population, but regardless, it is important to first make sure we’re actually protecting the habitats that we know those species require,” Hoffman said.

“For sure, you cannot expect an increase in or maintenance of the species population if you are not protecting their habitats.”

To map its findings, BGC leverages the geographic information system (GIS) developed by California-based software company Esri.

FIRST REPORT

During COP16, due to be held in Cali, Colombia over Oct.21-Nov.1, BCG and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation will launch the first annual Species Protection Index Report.

The assessment seeks to highlight the 2024 SPI values at regional, national, and sub-national scales, along with case studies of conservation success and remaining gaps in species protection.

However, Hoffman said the report focuses more on rating species rather than countries.

“One of the things that we’re trying to be careful with in the report is to not necessarily say which country is doing better than others, because it is often highly related to histories of colonialism and inequality,” she said.

“The report is more of an opportunity to identify which species have particularly high or low species protection scores, so that it can be used as a tool for directing conservation efforts in the future, and celebrate successes.”

The report will be published annually, in a bid to support global monitoring of trends in SPI values over time, allowing for more targeted efforts, she said.

Currently representing more than 15% of Earth’s terrestrial area, PAs are considered key to advancing biodiversity conservation under the GBF.

With the global framework now entering its implementation mode, experts are increasingly urging global leaders to protect the right percentage of land and sea to have an actual impact on biodiversity.

According to a study published in April by US-headquartered non-profit Re:wild, PAs can even have negative impacts if there is poor enforcement and insufficient resourcing, leading to higher rates of resource extraction, poaching, or agricultural expansion.

By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com

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