Biodiversity credits – called Biodiversity Blocks – intended to restore and protect critical marine ecosystems have been introduced at COP16 by SeaTrees, a programme set up by non-profit organisation Sustainable Surf that develops coastal restoration projects worldwide to reverse climate change.
Following Biodiversity Credit Alliance guidelines, Biodiversity Blocks are designed to set a three-dimensional approach that restores biodiversity, helps protect coastlines and acts as carbon sinks. SeaTrees’ inaugural Block offerings focus on three key projects: a Kenyan mangrove forest, a kelp forest off Sydney’s coast and a coral reef in Fiji.
The first Blocks to go online were for the Kenya project.
According to SeaTrees, currently, 90% of Earth’s carbon is stored in the oceans, yet only 4% of conservation and restoration funding is allocated to marine ecosystems.
“Ocean-based projects like kelp and mangrove restoration are in high demand and extremely effective for coastal protection, habitat, and carbon sequestration, yet support for them hasn’t met their outsized role in our planetary emergency,” Michael Stewart, co-founder of SeaTrees, commented.
“The SeaTrees biodiversity funding model enhances our ability to direct resources to where they’re needed most, with transparent, real-world results.”
“Biodiversity Blocks are an evolution in crediting and conservation,” added Kevin Whilden, co-founder of SeaTrees.
“They allow those of us working in restoration and protection to focus on the full ecosystem, not just carbon capture. We hope this model offers a pathway to restoring balance and ensuring ecosystems continue to support life on Earth.”
The programme is aiming to expand from 24 to 100 marine ecosystem restoration projects by 2030.
Biodiversity credits ‘risk becoming a wild west’
Elsewhere the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (CBA) warned that the emerging market in biodiversity credits risks becoming “a wild west” unless guidelines based on the learnings from the carbon credits market are applied, according to their latest paper.
New biodiversity credit schemes, still in their infancy, lack independent verification and any external oversight, as well as transparency in how baselines are set and any form of impact evaluation, the report highlights.
This comes in the wake of an explosion in carbon credits over the last ten years as an economic tool to offset company’s carbon emissions. However, poor transparency, double counting and a misleading claims from the companies running some of these schemes has meant they can significantly overestimate their impact on reversing deforestation and other claims. Notably, of a potential 89 million credits, only 6% were linked to additional cuts in carbon emissions created by preserved trees – the entire basis on which credits are sold.
There is a real risk of a new wild west, where biodiversity credits are abused as compliance ‘offsets on the cheap’” said Marc Palahi, CEO of the CBA.
“Ultimately we must address the systemic, root causes of the problem if we are to prevent irreversible biodiversity loss. That means industries investing in and working in symbiosis with nature to transform and rethink their value chains rather than simply offsetting for its failures.
“Whilst this transformation should be the central focus, high-integrity nature markets that enable private investment in nature conservation and restoration can be an important complement.
“Only by learning the lessons of carbon credits, can we ensure biodiversity credits’ wings are not clipped before they’ve had a chance to fly.”
