Knowledge Exchange Fellowship to bring biodiversity science expertise to developing the first biodiversity credit standard

生物多样性是生物的多样性--这是一个非常难以衡量的简单概念。该项目将与工业和第三部门合作伙伴合作，制定第一个生物多样性信用标准-生物多样性项目必须满足的核心社会、环境和治理要求才能获得认证。英国、欧盟和其他地方最近和即将出台的立法对许多类型的组织提出了更高的要求，要求它们报告其活动对碳和自然的影响。私营部门对自然保护的兴趣也迅速增加，这是企业社会责任、积极宣传和‘做正确的事情’的一部分。这些趋势，加上正在制定的各种自然资本影响评估计划，正在创造对生物多样性信用的巨大需求，但尚不存在生物多样性信用标准。生物多样性信用与碳信用一样，为生物多样性分配可投资和可交易的经济价值，例如允许土地所有者筹集资金(基于预测的生物多样性上升)，为其土地上的自然保护提供资金。保护私人投资联盟的2021年保护金融报告显示，私营部门生物多样性资金增长非常迅速：从2016年的20亿美元增加到2020年的180亿美元。值得注意的是，报告得出的结论是，增长率可能会高得多，但由于缺乏量化生物多样性的适当方法，增长速度受到了阻碍。这是我的起点。我最近得到了NERC-ESRC的资助，以提供一种对生物多样性进行量化的方法的综合，以便潜在地用于生物多样性的评估和交易。该项目将于2022年2月开工。它应该产生严格的学术基础，以便能够建立一种合理的方法来量化生物多样性的上升或损失，供那些不是生物多样性科学家但正在与生物多样性信用合作并对其进行认证的人(例如投资者、监管机构、经济学家)使用。我的联谊项目是与利益相关者共同设计的。它集中在Wallacea Trust和Plan Vivo之间的合作伙伴关系上，Wallacea Trust是一家保护慈善机构，我是该基金会的受托人，Plan Vivo是一家为发展项目提供认证的慈善机构。这两个国家签署了一份关于制定生物多样性信用标准的谅解备忘录，并且已经收到了大量的利益(见受益者)。我是一个由50人组成的生物多样性提升方法学工作组的成员，自2021年年中以来一直在开会。我现在已经被选为10人计划活体生物多样性标准工作组(BSWG)的唯一学者，该工作组将于2022年启动。一旦信用标准开始运作，将成立一个技术咨询委员会(TAC)，我刚刚被邀请担任该委员会的主席。一个关键的重点是在制定和实施标准的各个方面建立多样性和包容性。一旦标准推出，我将与我的利益相关者同事合作，不断改进它，并开发工具来补充它。我们已经制作了Project Idea Note模板v.1，并邀请了许多感兴趣的组织中的10个组织使用它来申请。最初的10个项目申请(来自5个大洲的8个国家；见受益者)将反复处理，吸取经验教训，在全面推广之前改进信贷标准及其工作流程。BSWG和TAC将负责这项工作，所以我将处于这项工作的中心。生物多样性很难衡量，特别是以可重复、可审计的方式。我们正在为信用标准开发的方法需要现场采样，并且对项目申请者来说成本很高。因此，我们的目标是开发工具，将潜在的项目地点筛选到一个简短的名单中：一个“分类系统”。一旦实现了第一个目标，这将是后期项目的重点。我还将致力于标准的扩展，并确定哪些需要进一步研究，以确保标准的寿命。

Biodiversity is the variety of living things - a simple concept that is remarkably hard to measure. This project is to work with industrial and third sector partners to develop the first biodiversity credit standard - core social, environmental and governance requirements biodiversity projects must meet to become certified.Recent and upcoming legislation in the UK, EU and elsewhere is introducing greater requirements for organisations of many types to report on the effects of their activities on both carbon and nature. There is also rapidly increasing private-sector interest in nature conservation as part of corporate social responsibility, positive publicity and 'doing the right thing'. These trends, plus various natural capital impact assessment schemes being developed, are creating a large demand for biodiversity credits, but no biodiversity credit standard exists yet. Biodiversity credits, as with carbon credits, assign investable and tradeable economic value to biodiversity, for example allowing a landowner to raise finance (based on forecast biodiversity uplift) to fund nature conservation on her land.The Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation's 2021 Conservation Finance report shows very rapid growth in private-sector biodiversity funding: from US$2 billion in 2016 to $18 billion in 2020. Remarkably, the report concludes that the growth rate could be considerably higher, but is held back by lack of appropriate methods for quantifying biodiversity. This was my starting-point. I recently got NERC-ESRC funding to provide a synthesis of methods to quantify biodiversity for potential use in biodiversity valuation and trading. The project starts February 2022. It should produce rigorous academic underpinning to enable a sound methodology for quantifying biodiversity uplift or loss, for use by people who are not biodiversity scientists but are working with, and certifying, biodiversity credits (e.g. investors, regulators, economists).My Fellowship project is co-designed with stakeholders. It centres on a partnership between the Wallacea Trust, a conservation charity of which I am a Trustee, and Plan Vivo, a charity that certifies development projects. The two have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a biodiversity credit standard, and have already received a large amount of interest (see Beneficiaries). I am one of a 50-strong Biodiversity Uplift Methodology Working Group, meeting since mid-2021. I have now been selected as the only academic on a 10-person Plan Vivo Biodiversity Standard Working Group (BSWG), to start in 2022. Once the credit standard is operating, a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) will be formed, and I have just been asked to Chair that. A key focus is to build diversity and inclusion into all aspects of developing and implementing the standard.Once the standard is launched, I will work with my stakeholder colleagues to continuously improve it, and develop tools to supplement it. We have already produced v.1 of the Project Idea Note template, and invited 10 of the many interested organisations to use it to apply. Those first 10 project applications (from 8 countries in 5 continents; see Beneficiares) will be processed iteratively, learning from the experience to improve the credit standard and its workflows before full roll-out. The BSWG and TAC will be responsible for this work, so I will be at the centre of it.Biodiversity is difficult to measure, especially in a repeatable, auditable way. The method we are developing for the credit standard requires field sampling and significant cost for project applicants. So we aim to develop tools to filter potential project sites to a short list: a 'triage system'. This will be a key project focus in later stages, once the first objectives are achieved. I will also be working on extensions to the standard, and determining what needs further research, to ensure the longevity of the standard.