The Mexican state of Colima has committed to supporting a nature crediting programme spearheaded by a French restoration company.
The Pacific coast region is the first to confirm it is taking part in the Net Positive 2030 programme, which Nat5 announced in August with the aim of collaborating with regional Mexican governments.
“Colima becomes the first state in the country to implement a comprehensive strategy that links business activities with the regeneration of the natural environment through the use of nature positive credits,” the state said in a press release.
The scale of proposed credit transactions supported by the state was unclear at the time of publishing.
Government agency the Institute for the Environment and Sustainable Development (IMADES) has played a key role in adopting the strategy, as a way of encouraging private investment in conservation, Nat5 said in a press release shared with Carbon Pulse.
IMADES said it believed using Nat5’s nature positive credits could help companies improve ecosystems, promoting a more harmonious relationship with nature.
Nat5’s system incentivises companies to invest in nature regeneration by offering certified credits with benefits for biodiversity, carbon, water, and soil.
“Credits will be used as a tool to incentivise business projects that have a positive and measurable impact on the state’s ecosystems,” Nat5 said.
Nat5’s nature credits will be certified using the Ases On-Chain Protocol (aOCP) framework developed by its parent company, the Franco-Mexican ecological engineering firm Ases.
NETPOSITIVE 2030
The NetPositive 2030 programme aims to promote actions that contribute to achieving net-positive biodiversity outcomes in Mexico by 2030, Nat5 said in August.
“While the programme is designed to make significant contributions toward halting biodiversity loss, it is important to clarify that we are not claiming to achieve this alone,” said Guillermo Hinojos, CEO of Nat5 at the time.
“Instead, the initiative aims to play a crucial role in fostering collaboration among various stakeholders – including governments, private sector companies, and local communities – to collectively work toward this important goal.”
Last month, a Mexican investment firm announced it would pre-purchase Nat5 biodiversity, water, and carbon credits worth $25,000.
Nat5 is piloting its biodiversity credit methodology for nature conservation at three sites in the Mexican states of Durango, Oaxaca, and Chihuahua. The company, which also offers nature-based carbon credits via its website, launched a separate pilot of its water credit methodology also in Chihuahua.
Nat5 is not the only company to engage in biodiversity credits in Mexico. A project in Guanajuato state is set to generate biodiversity credits under the BioCarbon standard.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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