| dc.description.abstract | Unlike carbon credit that has been successfully implemented in Indonesia and elsewhere, biodiversity credit is a very new concept, that works similar to the carbon credit. In the biodiversity credit system, quantification is much more complex, as biodiversity consists in three levels, namely species and genetic, as well as ecosystem. In the international level, the biodiversity credit has been launched through Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework under the CBD, as a mean to fill in the gap of necessary funding for biodiversity conservation originating from private sectors and other funding sources.
The objectives of the study were to (1) summarize the concept of ‘biodiversity credits’ from various standard organizations including Verra and Plan Vivo and examine its applicability to the mangrove-pond ecosystem context in Berau, East Kalimantan; (2) identify the indicators and methodology/protocol that need to be applied when collecting field data in the mangrove ecosystem, and (3) develop data scoping guidelines for project description document development.
The approach of the study is basically a combination of desk study and interviews to the resource persons (six resource persons having different expertise), followed by desk analysis. An intensive desk study was conducted by studying many publications related to the biodiversity credit, available in the web. The most important publications were publication series of Plan Vivo and Verra, of which both produce a popular scheme for carbon credit in the past and currently also biodiversity credit. The nature of the YKAN’s proposed aquaculture-mangrove ecosystem in Berau also has been studied, to analyze whether biodiversity credit would be possible to be implemented in that location.
Currently there is no formal, globally agreed definition of a biodiversity credit. Biodiversity credit (or ‘biocredit’, ‘nature credit’, ‘nature token’) basically is a standardized units of positive biodiversity outcomes. It is a financial instrument designed to generate funding for the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of biodiversity-rich areas. Therefore, for the conservationists, biodiversity credits are market-based instruments designed to incentivize the conservation and restoration of biodiversity. For private companies, the biodiversity credits are an economic instrument that allow the private companies to finance restoration/conservation activities, that deliver net positive biodiversity gains.
As biodiversity encompass genetic, species, and ecosystem levels, there is no universal metric or unit for biodiversity. This is a fundamental difference between the biodiversity markets and the carbon market, where carbon credit can have the same unit across all trees (and other sources), namely carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e; 1 CO2e equal to one ton of CO2 reductions or avoided emission). Biodiversity, by its very nature, is more complex and multidimensional than carbon.
Scheme and methodology for biodiversity credit has been developed in many countries by many institution (companies, foundations, etc.). Among the many institutions that developed carbon credit in the past, Plan Vivo and Verra were two of he most used scheme in the world. The two institution currently has developed scheme for biodiversity credit. Plan Vivo scheme is specializing in a small, community-based project, and in December 2023 has been launched their biodiversity credit scheme, named Plan Vivo Nature (PV Nature). Verra is another commonly used scheme for carbon credit, but Verra’s scheme for biodiversity credit (Nature Framework; SDVM002) is still underdeveloped, and expected to be launched in mid-2024. This report, therefore, will focus on Plan Vivo scheme, which already available and more appropriate for the proposed project. ... | id |
