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，制定首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正在对许多类型的组织提出更高的要求，要求他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在迅速增加，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，正在产生对生物多样性信用的大量需求，但目前还没有生物多样性信用标准。生物多样性信用额与碳信用额一样，赋予生物多样性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私人投资保护联盟（Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation）的2021年保护融资报告显示，私营部门的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，该报告的结论是，增长率可能会高得多，但由于缺乏适当的生物多样性量化方法而受到阻碍。这是我的出发点。我最近得到了NERC-ESRC的资助，提供了一个量化生物多样性的综合方法，用于生物多样性评估和交易。该项目将于2022年2月开始。它应该产生严格的学术基础，使一个健全的方法来量化生物多样性的提升或损失，使用的人谁不是生物多样性科学家，但正在工作，并验证，生物多样性信用（如投资者，监管机构，经济学家）.我的奖学金项目是与利益相关者共同设计.它的中心是Wallacea Trust（一个保护慈善机构，我是其受托人）和Plan Vivo（一个认证发展项目的慈善机构）之间的伙伴关系。双方签署了一份谅解备忘录，以制定生物多样性信贷标准，并已收到大量的利益（见受益人）。我是一个由50多人组成的生物多样性可持续方法工作组的成员，该工作组自2021年年中以来一直在开会。我现在被选为唯一一个10人的Plan Vivo生物多样性标准工作组（BSWG）的学者，该工作组将于2022年开始。一旦信贷标准开始运作，将成立一个技术咨询委员会（TAC），我刚刚被要求主持该委员会。在制定和实施标准的各个方面，都要建立多样性和包容性。一旦标准发布，我将与我的利益相关者同事一起不断改进它，并开发工具来补充它。我们已经制作了项目创意说明模板的第1版，并邀请了10个感兴趣的组织使用它来申请。最初的10个项目申请（来自5大洲的8个国家;见Beneficiares）将反复处理，从经验中学习，在全面推出之前改进信贷标准及其工作流程。BSWG和TAC将负责这项工作，所以我将处于中心位置。生物多样性很难衡量，尤其是以可重复、可审计的方式。我们正在开发的信用标准的方法需要实地采样和项目申请人的大量成本。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短名单：一个“分类系统”。一旦实现了第一批目标，这将是项目后期的一个关键重点。我还将致力于扩展标准，并确定需要进一步研究的内容，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.