A Colombia-based environmental standard has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a local project developer to explore biodiversity credit opportunities worldwide and test its methodology within different sites and ecosystems.

Cercarbono and Campo Capital announced the agreement on Wednesday during the ongoing COP16 UN biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia, in an effort to create a pipeline of large-scale biodiversity conservation projects aligned with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) objectives.

Campo Capital will lead the design and implementation of biodiversity projects, while Cercarbono will oversee the certification process, ensuring the highest standards for biodiversity credit issuance are met, the companies said.

Currently, Campo Capital mainly focuses its biodiversity operations in Colombia, developing agroforestry and ecosystem restoration projects and raising private funds to support them, though it also manages a biodiversity credit project in Zanzibar.

“This MoU is a critical step in creating meaningful solutions to biodiversity loss,” said Alex Saer, CEO of Cercarbono.

“In line with the GBF targets, our collaboration with Campo Capital will allow us to merge environmental management with certified biodiversity outcomes, creating opportunities for impactful investment in conservation.”

The partnership also seeks to develop a framework for biodiversity credit projects under the Biodiversity Certification Programme Protocol (CBCP), first published in March.

“It will provide a structure for future independent measurement, verification, and certification of nature gains,” the companies said.

“[The framework will] lay the groundwork for a transparent biodiversity credit market in Colombia, ensuring that future certified biodiversity outcomes will be quantifiable, traceable, and recognised both nationally and internationally, contributing to global ecosystem restoration and protection efforts.”

Cercarbono is also expected to announce the registration of a first project under its standard, run by US-based Savimbo, the Indigenous-led company that developed the methodology Cercarbono has adopted for its conservation scheme.

With these actions, the standard aims to generate interest in the market’s development and attract investors from overseas.

“We are going to put the seed at COP16 in order to catch the eye of those who are still not into the debate,” Saer told Carbon Pulse earlier this month.

COMPARABLE CREDITS

Cercarbono’s biodiversity credit programme will operate within parameters designed to make biodiversity credits into comparable commodities, Saer said Wednesday, speaking on a COP16 panel and separately to Carbon Pulse.

One of these is the use of a disclaimer for early-stage biodiversity projects so that their units can be sold, despite risks and potential future improvements in methodologies, as the market matures.

“We will learn from these first projects, these pilot projects, but [they] will come with an ‘innovation’ label,” he said.

“It could be that one year, things change – the methodology is revised, or the programme itself defines new rules – and  the credits won’t stop being sold, but rather will be part of this innovation programme.”

In addition, Cercarbono will cap the number of biodiversity credit issuances that are possible per hectare per year in all projects to a maximum of 12, Saer said.

This will help prevent regional discrepancies, but is also essential to ensure comparability in the market, he told Carbon Pulse.

“You’ll have similar projects in different biomes. One could produce 10,000 credits, and another 100,000 – and the market needs to know how to value these different credits.”

“A measure to put an upper limit [on per-hectare issuances] will make the credits act like a commodity, and make it possible to put a price on conservation and restoration activities,” he added.

“Obviously, there will be [price] differentials depending on the ecosystem you’re working in, which facilitator you’re working with, and the interests of the financier.”

By Giada Ferraglioni and Alejandra Padin-Dujon in Cali – news@carbon-pulse.com

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