IAPB launches Biodiversity Credit Markets Framework at COP16
CALI, Colombia: The International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (IAPB) today launched its Framework for high integrity biodiversity credit markets. The Framework lays the foundation for how biodiversity credits, a financing mechanism, can be harnessed to drive much needed investment towards the conservation and restoration of Nature. Alongside the Framework, the IAPB is also showcasing a suite of pilot projects as a meaningful way to illustrate the current state of the market and its development prospects. At an event at CBD COP16 in Cali, Colombia, the Panel’s co-chairs, joined by the Environment Ministers of France and the United Kingdom, launched the Framework to an audience of global experts and commentators.
Over a year in development, IAPB’s Framework aims to provide the solid foundations necessary for the development and growth, at pace, of high integrity biodiversity credits and credit markets globally. It seeks to respond directly to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)’s goal of halting and reversing biodiversity loss and to the implementation of Target 19 of the GBF.
As such, IAPB’s work will help to close the Nature financing gap by supporting the scale up of biodiversity credits that can simultaneously channel funds into biodiversity, support a shift in business behaviour towards Nature-positive actions and secure fair rewards for Nature’s stewards.
Key takeaways from the Framework include:
- It is feasible for high integrity biodiversity credits and credit markets to develop at scale and pace.
- High integrity means verified outcomes for Nature, equity and fairness for people, and good governance for markets.
- The important role of Nature’s stewards is clear. Their knowledge, experience, traditions and values must be respected at all times.
- Biodiversity credits can be used for making evidence-based contributions to Nature goals, for local compensation of biodiversity impacts (under strict criteria), and for insetting – proactive investment within buyers’ supply chains. IAPB does not support international biodiversity offsetting approaches.
- Ambitious and urgent collective leadership, from all market actors, is needed to scale up biodiversity credit markets at pace.
The Panel, its five Working Groups and set of Knowledge Partners are made up of more than 120 senior representatives from over 25 countries. This diverse and rich array of stakeholders, from finance, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, business organisations, academia and non-governmental organisations have worked collaboratively to develop the Framework.
“Nature provides the basis for all living things on earth, yet we stand at a crossroads, as humanity faces two existential crises: climate change and biodiversity loss. Unless we act now, lives and livelihoods will face devastating consequences. Biodiversity credits and markets, created and governed pursuant to high integrity principles, can play an important role in channelling funds to Nature and its stewards and to helping stop biodiversity loss. That has been the mission of the IAPB, whose work is an important part of the implementation of Target 19 of the Global Biodiversity Framework—increasing financial resources for the critical implementation of national biodiversity strategies and actions.”
Dame Amelia Fawcett, co-chair of IAPB
“We are all part of Nature. But it is under threat. It’s time to act and protect it against destruction and greed. The IAPB Framework was developed by a diverse, global team, made up of people of good will, through dialogue and exchange. We are all convinced that, designed in the right way and used alongside other policy instruments, high integrity biodiversity credit markets could help people, fund Nature conservation and restoration, and contribute to ensuring sustainable supply chains. We urge governments, investors and companies to consider our recommendations and work with IPs and LCs, NGOs and scientists to make it happen.”
Sylvie Goulard, co-chair of IAPB
“France is very pleased to have joined forces with the UK in initiating and supporting since June 2023 the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (IAPB), building on our respective commitment to biodiversity finance at the highest level. We believe that, if well designed, biodiversity credits can contribute to scaling up private finance for nature, and that is what the IAPB is helping us with: giving us that critical understanding on how to design these innovative financial instruments that can deliver for the planet and for the stewards of nature. IAPB has delivered a solid and actionable Framework to establish high integrity biodiversity credits markets, supported by a large multi stakeholder coalition of key actors, and illustrated by a basket of representative pilot projects.”
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention, France
“Nature underpins everything, and we need to take urgent action to shift our global systems to align with the Global Biodiversity Framework and deliver a nature positive, liveable planet for all. The International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits Framework is an important step to creating a nature positive economy and we welcome the Framework. We are delighted to support the IAPB’s work at COP16 alongside our French colleagues.”
Mary Creagh CBE MP, Minister for Nature, United Kingdom
Sponsored by, but independent from, the governments of the United Kingdom and France, the Panel’s approach has been open and inclusive throughout. It has gathered insights from 3
consultations, meetings and webinars with numerous market actors over the past 15 months. This bridge-building approach, between the public, private and NGO sectors, and between Global South and Global North, has helped IAPB to ensure its work is grounded in high-quality, robust experience, research, evidence and Indigenous knowledge.
“Biodiversity credits can fulfill the promise of directing funds toward nature conservation and restoration by encouraging businesses to engage in nature-positive activities and supporting the needs and interests of the most effective stewards of nature. However, they will not achieve this—and may even cause harm—without proper market design and governance. In this regard, I am proud to have participated in the work of the IAPB, alongside other representatives of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and to have contributed to the co-construction of this important Framework and its recommendations. This effort aims to establish high-integrity biodiversity credit markets that can benefit the planet and nature’s stewards, give back to Mother Earth, and support my relatives among Indigenous Peoples and local communities, ensuring a more balanced and mindful future for the next generations.”
Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui, Leader of The Paiter Surui People
“The scale and urgency of closing the $700bn nature financing gap means we must unlock all forms of resource mobilization for people and nature, from continued public funding and reforms to public subsidies through to a wide range of private and blended financing. The International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (IAPB) has laid a valuable and timely foundation to build clarity in the space of biodiversity credit markets as one such potential tool. Clear, credible policy and regulatory safeguards must underpin the development of any new biodiversity credit systems. TNC sees the Framework as a valuable step forward to build a collective understanding of best practices and regulatory safeguards for biodiversity credit markets.”
Jennifer Morris, Chief Executive Officer, The Nature Conservancy
The Framework consists of 21 High-Level Principles for high integrity biodiversity credit markets, co-developed in collaboration with the Biodiversity Credit Alliance and World Economic Forum, alongside IAPB recommendations and guidance which provide detailed information to market actors on what is needed to operationalise best practice.
ADDITIONAL SUPPORTIVE STATEMENTS
A number of additional supportive statements were received from a broad range of stakeholders. They are included here for completeness and to assist with tailoring articles if helpful.
“Biodiversity credit markets are one of several mechanisms identified in the Biodiversity Plan that can help channel mobilise private capital for nature positive outcomes. The IAPB guidance is an important reference both for countries developing regulated high integrity biodiversity credit markets as well as for companies intending to use biodiversity credits as part of a portfolio of responses on their nature positive and net zero journey.”
Abyd Karmali OBE, Managing Director, Environmental Business Advisory, Bank of America 4
“Done right, biodiversity credits can be a useful tool to mobilize financial resources domestically and also generate much needed international financial flows for biodiversity. The IAPB work shows that governments have a central role to play in setting up an effective governance that upholds IP and LC rights, ensures fair rewards to nature stewards, provides for integrity assurance, and drives demand within equitable markets.”
Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility
“Markets have not so much failed nature, they have applied a value system that does not capture nature’s true values. Biodiversity credits can be a key solution to internalise multiple values of biodiversity in markets and economic decision-making. This critical work, including learning experience with carbon credits, could lay the necessary foundations for finally ending the perverse consequences that result from externalising impacts on biodiversity.”
David Obura, Director, Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
“Being able to contribute to the IAPB’s work has been an invaluable experience. The Panel’s Framework defines principles applicable to different ecosystems and projects, and guidelines to promote the development of high integrity biodiversity credits in a framework which is fair for people, and notably fully inclusive of indigenous peoples and local communities. The Framework’s publication is a step forward in our efforts to safeguard biodiversity, and to mobilize funds for its conservation and restoration, alongside other tools which governments, corporations, and the financial sector can resort to this effect. Acting now is crucial, as the tragedy is that we are now reaching a point where short-term and long-term horizons are meeting. All stakeholders need to join forces to face this challenge. Biodiversity credits are in their early stages, and it is therefore essential that these mechanisms are developed according to rigorous standards of governance and integrity, and in a context allowing to experiment while maintaining close monitoring of the pilot projects.”
David Vaillant, Global Head of Finance, Strategy and Participations, BNP Paribas Asset Management
“The IAPB Framework represents an important milestone in developing biodiversity credit markets with integrity and underpins the transparency and governance needed to build trust. As with all nascent frameworks, challenges, both known and unknown, will undoubtedly arise , but this lays the foundation to ensure that biodiversity credits can mobilise capital in an equitable and inclusive manner, delivering real long-term outcomes for nature and its stewards.”
Gareth Thomas, Head of Research Innovation, Natural History Museum
“At the IDB, we’ve been scaling nature-positive investments for better impact in Latin America and the Caribbean. The International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits Framework is a critical asset for incorporating high integrity principles in investments towards conserving and restoring biodiversity. We look forward to socializing the principles with the region.”
Gregory Watson, Principal Specialist on Natural Capital and Biodiversity, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) 5
“As recognized in the IAPB framework, scaling the impact of biodiversity credit markets requires addressing governance challenges and territorial risks to ensure that communities, governments, agencies, and suppliers remain committed to upholding high-integrity standards. The financing gap to maintain ecosystem integrity is vast, and we urgently need innovative mechanisms like biodiversity credits to unlock responsible investments and scale green enterprises that benefit both nature and people. High-integrity biodiversity credits can reshape global conservation efforts by providing critical financial resources for forest restoration, while ensuring that communities’ rights and territorial risks are acknowledged and addressed.”
Ilona Szabó de Carvalho, President and Founder, Igarapé Institute
“As a future user of the High-Level Principles, we are excited to see this much-needed framework for integrity in biodiversity credit markets. These principles provide the clarity and structure we’ve been looking for, ensuring that biodiversity crediting projects deliver genuine benefits for nature while also supporting the communities that protect it”.
Luiz Gabriel Todt de Azevedo, Chief Strategy Officer, IDB Invest
“Nature is underfunded by approximately US$700 billion per year, and governments alone cannot close this funding gap. We also need to mobilize private capital. Conservation International is optimistic about the potential of the markets and welcomes the efforts of IAPB, BCA, and others to establish early guardrails, while regulation develops, that will help ensure integrity and equity as these markets evolve.”
Patricia Zurita, Chief Strategy Officer, Conservation International
“The scale and urgency of the global biodiversity crisis requires us to explore all credible options to expand investment to protect nature. I’m delighted the IAPB has made such impressive progress in outlining a framework to unlock substantial new investment whilst recognising the complexities and challenges involved in establishing effective markets and the central role of indigenous peoples and local communities. It would be irresponsible not to continue to develop biodiversity credits as an effective tool to address the biodiversity crisis”.
Richard Deverill, Director at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Botanical
“The profound reform of our society will not come from a brutal transformation but from a progressive evolution, where the logic of limitless growth must give way to a regulated approach aimed at preserving our planet and its biodiversity. Financial markets must be one of the driving forces behind this dynamic. By developing innovative instruments such as biodiversity credits, they contribute to mobilizing, increasing, and sustainably supporting the funding necessary to conserve and restore nature. This is not about giving up innovation but directing it towards models considering the Earth’s limited resources and their necessary regeneration. The Oceanographic Institute fully supports this approach by actively participating in the implementation of such mechanisms through the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (IAPB) and ensuring that the Ocean, the specific issues it faces, and the numerous ecosystem services it provides are appropriately integrated into these new financial tools”
Robert Calcagno, Chief Executive Officer, Oceanographic Institute, Foundation Albert I, Prince of Monaco 6
“As a proud member of the IAPB, ValueNature is committed to advancing the biodiversity credit market with the integrity and equity that this new framework represents. The collaboration with the Biodiversity Credit Alliance and World Economic Forum in co-developing the High-Level Principles is a step forward in ensuring alignment in the market and that biodiversity credits deliver real, measurable impacts for nature and its custodians. This is a critical moment for scaling high-integrity markets that foster biodiversity recovery and responsible stewardship of our planet”.
Simon Morgan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, ValueNature
“With surging interest in biodiversity credits, it is timely that the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits, on which we have been honoured to serve, has set out a direction of travel that can deliver high integrity markets that channel financing for nature conservation as well as restoration, exclude inappropriate long distance offsets and secondary trading, and establish market conditions that will help to secure the rights, fair remuneration, and equitable access for nature’s stewards, Indigenous Peoples, local communities and farmers”.
Simon Zadek, co-Chief Executive Office, NatureFinance
“We will never have a world without poverty in a world without nature. But nature costs money; money that is often not available to the governments and the communities, including Indigenous Peoples, who host the most important remaining biodiversity globally. That’s why the work of the IAPB is so important: we must engineer a transparent, inclusive and fair biodiversity credits market that rewards countries, communities and companies who build up nature rather than burn it down, dig it up or tear it apart. Because we all need nature; no matter where we live or what we do, it underpins our wealth, our income and our future. And at the World Bank, it underpins our mission to end poverty.”
Valerie Hickey, Global Director for Environment, World Bank
“High-integrity biodiversity credits offer an opportunities for rewarding the work of Indigenous peoples and local communities as stewards of nature while at the same time
offering those peoples opportunities to preserve and enhance their livelihoods. Biodiversity credits connect urban and rural dwellers across the planet, united by a commitment to restoring nature and protecting livelihoods”.
Ximena Rueda, School of Management, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
FOR EDITORS
IAPB draws on a diverse and rich array of expertise, with more than 120 experts from over 25 countries, including Knowledge Partners representing leading scientific organisations and world-class scientists and experts who have informed the Panel’s work. [see Notes to Editors, infra].
IAPB established five Working Groups to delve into critical design priorities: Measurement, Demand, Supply, Stewardship and Governance. The Framework draws from insights from the set of Working Papers the groups have developed. Today, these Working Papers are published alongside the Framework on our website. 7
IAPB is also showcasing a suite of pilot projects in Cali alongside the Framework. Pilots are a meaningful way to illustrate a range of approaches and to give a tangible indication of the current state of the market and its development prospects – it is intended that between them, this group of pilots can test the Framework principles and guidelines.
For more information, please contact IAPB@23red.com
