COP30: Coalition Launches Ecosystem Services, Credits for Amazonian Land
BELEM, Brazil — Nine Amazonian states and NatureFinance, a Swiss-based nonprofit, launched a project at COP30 aimed at rewarding ecosystem services and issuing biodiversity credits that generate revenue for nature conservation initiatives after key milestones are reached.
A joint venture between the Interstate Consortium for Sustainable Development of the Legal Amazon Region and NatureFinance announced the pilot project as a way to turn areas that are legally set up exclusively for nature conservation, also known as Full Protection Conservation Units, into revenue generating assets.
Economic activities and resource extraction are prohibited in Full Protection Conservation Units, according to a statement from the Amazonian states and NatureFinance. The monitoring and management of these protected areas can require between $1.7-2.8 billion in funds, which are largely the responsibility of the Amazonian state governments.
“The project addresses this imbalance by putting an economic value on conservation — recognizing it as a public service that benefits humanity and should generate fair, predictable returns for those protecting biodiversity,” the coalition said. “By directing new financial flows to priority areas, it also supports sustainable local development and reinforces the social and economic foundations of the Amazon.”
Luana Maia, the global Brazil lead at NatureFinance told OPIS over the weekend that the project will be structured as a system in which voluntary payments are made by different companies or financial institutions to go towards paying for ecosystem services and biodiversity credit issuance. Companies from sectors that depend on natural capital such as mining, agriculture, oil, natural gas and others can participate voluntarily by purchasing verified conservation outcomes, she added.
“Today, [the project] is purely voluntary and pre-market. The project is about building a credible, state-led protocol and then structuring demand around it,” Maia told OPIS. “In the medium term, states may also link demand to existing policy tools, for example like concession contracts.”
According to Maia, the pilot project is estimated to cover a protected area between 50,000 to 100,000 hectares. “However, the project’s scale can initially reach 8.9 million hectares only with the State Full Protection Areas in the Legal Amazon, and could reach much broader figures if federal and municipal Protected Areas of the same categories are considered.”
Biodiversity Credit Methodology in Development
Biodiversity credit issuance will depend on indicators that include soil and water quality, ecological connectivity, and the increase in populations of key species. The specific methodology is still being developed by different teams that are taking into account both national and international references, according to the statement.
Maia told OPIS this week that the coalition of the Amazonian states and NatureFinance had consulted and reviewed standards and principles espoused by organizations like the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity (IAPB) or the Biodiversity Credit Alliance (BCA), and that partnerships with similar groups could be considered.
The Amazonian project’s methodology will focus on verifiable results of protected area management and threatened species, Maia said.
The difference in habitats across the protected areas may vary, Maia said, but the coalition was working to devise a single methodology to assess the diverse habitats. The methodology takes into account the integrity of native vegetation, management effectiveness, connectivity of the protected area, and threatened species.
“These factors are measurable and comparable, but they do vary by site, which allows the mechanism to reflect ecological differences between habitats without inventing a new standard for every Conservation Unit,” Maia told OPIS.
The project is expected to be based on a 10-year-long model or more, Maia told OPIS. The project’s timeline will likely also depend on demand for biodiversity credits from purchasers, the NatureFinance lead said.
“So, the benefits for people on the land come mainly through public jobs, services and investments in and around these Conservation Units, rather than through individual farm-level payments, which are not applicable for unoccupied areas.”
Turning conservation work into a revenue generation mechanism could help to relieve pressure on the Amazonian states to fund conservation work, allowing for more funds to go towards initiatives meant to reduce inequality and improve infrastructure and social programs, added Maia.
“Since this project aims to improve fiscal policies in the states, we expect that amounts will also be allocated to other public interest activities such as other socioenvironmental aspects, sanitation, infrastructure, health, education,” Maia said.
COP30 runs from Nov. 10 to Nov. 21.
–Reporting by Humberto J. Rocha, hrocha@opisnet.com; Editing by Anthony Lane, alane@opisnet.com