Presenting Biodiversity Pulse, Carbon Pulse’s free newsletter on the biodiversity market. It’s a twice-weekly summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. Subscribe here
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TOP STORY
UK national park launches country’s first voluntary biodiversity credit scheme
The South Downs has become the first national park in the UK to establish a formal scheme for a voluntary biodiversity credit market, aiming to scale up private investments in nature recovery.
MARKET
Conservation International to enter nature credit market, screen buyers
Conservation International has announced its intention to participate in the nature and biodiversity credit markets, outlining guardrails it will abide to, including refusing to sell units to fossil fuel companies and firms without zero deforestation targets.
Non-profit drafts recommendations for enhancing Africa’s biodiversity credit markets
A Swiss-headquartered non-profit has released a set of recommendations to bolster Africa’s biodiversity credit markets, including setting minimum price floors for units and establishing an independent body tasked with determining project outcomes.
BUSINESS & FINANCE
New financing approach key to scaling nature tech market, report says
Nature tech has the potential to reduce costs of biodiversity conservation and support the development of financing mechanisms such as voluntary biodiversity credits, though greater collaboration between private and public sectors is needed to scale the market, a report has said.
TOOLS & GUIDANCE
High integrity forest initiative releases methodology for biodiversity, climate units
The High Integrity Forest (HIFOR) investment initiative backed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released on Thursday its methodology to identify and issue units that could fit the nascent biodiversity credit market.
POLICY
EU Commission study proposes to add ecosystems’ economic value to GDP accounting
Economic policy assessments should incorporate the monetary value of the benefits that people derive from ecosystems, an EU Commission study has said, calling for establishing a separate indicator to complement the conventional gross domestic product (GDP).
Malaysia launches non-market instrument to drive forestry funding
A Malaysian federal agency has launched a non-market instrument under its REDD+ programme to channel private sector funds for supporting forest conservation projects in the country.
WWF takes legal action against Norway over deep sea mining spat
WWF has announced it will take the Norwegian government to court over its decision to open up areas in the Arctic region for commercial seabed mineral activities.
PROJECTS
Irish forestry group to pilot biodiversity monitoring for corporate disclosures
Ireland’s largest private forestry management group is set to pilot a monitoring framework for measuring biodiversity gains on a replanting project, as it considers issuing biodiversity credits in the future.
SCIENCE & TECH
A sixth of Malaysian rainforest seen to be under threat from deforestation
Malaysia has committed to protect 50% of its natural forests but deforestation is posing a serious threat to around 3.2 million hectares of its rainforests, a report released Tuesday has found.
Declining biodiversity and increasing carbon caught in vicious loop, report says
Declining biodiversity will hit stored carbon stocks given an ecosystem’s ability to keep carbon out of the air is linked to its biological diversity, a paper published last week has found.
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CONFERENCE
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
MARKET
Forest management – The province of British Columbia and the Kwiakah First Nation on Friday announced the creation of the Macinuxw Special Forest Management Area, a new conservation and regenerative forestry zone within the southern Great Bear Rainforest. The 7,865-ha area aims to replace commercial logging with a conservation model that generates revenue through carbon credits and regenerative forestry jobs. This initiative is part of a broader effort to enhance sustainability and promote a conservation-based economy, aligning with long-standing conservation efforts in the Great Bear Rainforest. (Carbon Pulse)
BUSINESS & FINANCE
Team up – The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the IFRS Foundation announced Friday they will collaborate to optimise how GRI and ISSB Standards can be used together. The initiative seeks to facilitate reporting on an organisation’s impacts, risks, and opportunities, and an initial outcome will involve a methodology pilot building on the recently published GRI 101 Biodiversity Standard and the ISSB’s upcoming project on Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services.
Hopeful – Kyrgyzstan is working with the UNDP on creating a multi-partner trust fund for nature protection, news outlet 24kg reports, citing Deputy Minister for Natural Resources Asel Raimakulova. The fund’s mission would be to support nature conservation and the development of innovative approaches to nature conservation and green initiatives at local, national, and sub-national levels, as well as to mobilise, coordinate, and integrate contributions from government agencies, the private sector, and the donor community. The Central Asian nation is also seeking to strengthen its climate finance position, as it is in the process of developing a climate adaptation strategy that includes biodiversity conservation.
Who you gonna call? – Investor-led initiative Nature Action 100 has set up a Science Council to guide and support its science-based research and technical activities, with 11 members selected from various organisations and universities. WWF’s Marco Lambertini and UNEP-WCMC’s Sharon Brooks will co-chair the council, with other seats taken by Hannah Brige (The Nature Conservancy), Rebekah Church (WWF), Beatrice Crona (Stockholm University), Annelisa Grigg (Globalbalance), Frank Hawkins (IUCN), Nadine McCormick (WBCSD), Naw Ei Ei Min (Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact), Stephen Polasky (University of Minnesota), and Varsha Vijay (SBTN).
POLICY
Green city – The German federal ministry of the environment has announced Monday it will allocate over €1.3 mln to a large-scale nature conservation project in the city of Dresden, Saxony, to protect and promote biodiversity and ecosystem services in the urban area. The project, which will encompass a total area of 10,700 ha, is funded by the ministry and the federal agency for nature conservation under the Natural Climate Protection Action Programme.
Big step – The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) plans to establish a biodiversity fund with a seed capital of $2.7 mln, Bloomberg reported. While DBSA’s own Green Fund will allocate the initial funding, the bank seeks to attract additional resources from private investors as well as the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Since nature has moved up the GEF agenda, the world’s largest environmental donor has played a critical role in a number of initiatives aimed at steering biodiversity policies and markets at a national and international level.
Tripled – Kazakhstan’s government has ramped up funding for biodiversity conservation between 2018 and 2023, allocating over $70 mln from the state budget to the management of protected areas last year, the UNDP Biodiversity Finance initiative (Biofin) said. This represents a threefold increase compared to 2018. As of 2023, Kazakhstan has designated over 29 mln ha as protected areas, with Biofin supporting the country in establishing eight new protected areas and expanding three existing ones.
Not under my watch – The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in India has sought responses from authorities on a report claiming a 2.33 mln-ha tree cover loss since 2000, The Print reported. The report cited Global Forest Watch data, highlighting deforestation and carbon emissions from Indian forests. According to the data, India lost 414,000 ha of humid primary forest from 2002-23, accounting for 18% of the total tree cover loss during this period. It added that the tree cover loss in India included both human-caused and natural events such as logging, fires, and storms. From 2013-23, 95% of tree cover loss occurred in natural forests. The NGT determined that the matter indicated a violation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, and the Environment Protection Act, and consequently, issued notices to the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, the Survey of India (SoI), and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and listed the matter for further hearing on Aug. 28.
Transferring tigers – The Indian government is planning to send four tigers to Cambodia this year in order to revive the latter’s big cat population. Once home to several Indochinese tigers, intensive poaching of both tigers and their prey in Cambodia’s dry forests have led to a severe decline in their numbers. The new arrivals will be sent to a 90-ha forest inside a wildlife sanctuary in the Cardamom rainforest to acclimatise to their new home before being released into the wild, officials said. In Cambodia, the last tiger sighting was from a camera trap in 2007 and the cats were declared “functionally extinct” in Cambodia in 2016.
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