Photo credit: David Clode, Unsplash
Emerging initiatives are biodiversity credit projects or frameworks that have been announced as in development or in pilot testing.
For integrity reasons, we have included only publicly available information rather than personal communications. However, the maps are designed as a resource that will be added to over time as the market develops, so please reach out to us if you have an initiative that’s not publicly available or that we haven’t included in these maps and you’d like it to be included. And, if you’ve been included in these maps but you’d like to update the information about your initiative, we’re very happy to do that, just let us know.
We hope the maps are useful.
By IP&LC-led, we mean IP&LCs make the decisions.
There are currently very few Indigenous Peoples & Local Community (IP&LC)-led voluntary biodiversity credit initiatives.
It is anticipated that as the market matures, there will be growing demand for such initiatives, given 80% of the world’s biodiversity is stewarded by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.
The only governments to have taken substantive steps to establish a national voluntary biodiversity market are the Australian and New Zealand Governments. The Government of Niue’s Ocean Credit program and the Government of Gabon’s foreshadow biodiversity credit markets but are at the very early stages of development. Recently, India has also indicated an intention to launch its ‘Green Credit Programme’, to complement its newly-launched domestic Carbon Market. In August 2023, the Scottish Government engaged CreditNature, an initiative developer based in the United Kingdom to develop a voluntary biodiversity credit market in Scotland.
A significant number of private-sector initiatives are emerging globally, at different stages of development. Many of the private-sector initiatives are opting for an area-based approach to unitisation (i.e. using a specific area metric as a means to unitise positive biodiversity activities/ outcomes).
Private-sector initiatives are generally targeting corporates for uptake, with fewer schemes also directly targeting individual buyers.
Marketplace for Nature contributes to Pollination Foundation’s vision to support place- based economies create a climate resilient future where people and nature thrive. Our Foundation is supporting the growth of Indigenous and community nature-based enterprise, and improving the management and protection of natural resources as the flow of finance into nature-based solutions increases.
We seek to build communities, partnerships and networks willing to explore and realise new ways to scale nature-based solutions and at the same time, grow confidence amongst corporate and financial sectors and governments, in the value of investing in nature.
Social Carbon
Credit Name: Nature Stewardship Credit
Location: Global (origin: UK)
Private Sector-led Program
Status: In development (Standard / Methodology in development or under consultation)
Size per Credit: 1 ha | Price per Credit: Unknown
Trading Volume: Unknown
Description: Social Carbon, a carbon NbS standard administrator, is developing a framework to enable projects to generate Nature Stewardship Credits (NSCs). Each NSC will be a measurable unit representing the sustainable conservation and/or
restoration of one hectare of natural ecosystem over a 1-year period.
The framework is currently being piloted through two projects – one with First Nations in Canada and another in Zambia that focuses on community-led conservation and forest restoration.
Website: https://www.socialcarbon.org/
Other references: N/A
Entry last updated: 24 Jan 2025