Executive summary

Conservation-first, indicator-species-based biodiversity crediting

This methodology has been designed for simplicity and rapid deployment. It was co-developed with Indigenous Peoples (IP) and local communities (LC) involved in grassroots conservation in the Colombian Amazon, then translated to global markets by a dedicated core of conservation scientists for the immediate use of like-groups.

Indigenous Peoples steward an estimated 80% of the conserved biodiversity on Earth and yet recieve less than 2% of climate financing. This methodology is specifically designed to eliminate the scientific bureaucracy and market middlemen that could siphon money out of the commercialization of this service. Instead, it enables immediate and autonomous quantification and direct payments to these groups and their smallfarmer neighbors.

This methodology relies on indicator species. A simple but powerful concept: certain species of flora and fauna can survive only in functional ecosystems. A healthy specimen in the wild is a scientifically valid indicator that the ecosystem is functionally intact. Proving the existence of indicator species using non-invasive monitoring techniques (such as game cameras, photographs, or audio recordings), respects the wildlife and can be easily, and immediately implemented on the ground by IP and LC groups within traditional hunter-gatherer contexts. This is practical, useful, and valid given the difficulties of knowing or monitoring the fauna and flora of large ecosystems like the Amazon, and thanks to recent research, it is demonstrated that species diversity in one taxonomic group may be sufficient to represent other aspects of biodiversity. (Cox et al. 2022); (Rapacciuolo 2024); (Rapacciuolo et al. 2019).

This methodology issues voluntary biodiversity credits (VBCs). As such, it can never be used to provide “offsets” of any kind. Its authors do not believe that it will ever be ethical to trade a chimpanzee for a jaguar, or one IP group's jaguar for another's.

This methodology has been intentionally simplified. The scientists who have promoted it have used their expertise to democratize the measurements required for market inclusion, not in the name of scientific advancement, but in the name of immediate action.

Figure 1. One year of data loaded to open source code for biodiversity credit calculations

Figure 1. Data from ISBM biodiversity pilot site occuring over one year in the Colombian Amazon.

To the clear aim of direct market access for IP and LC, we have intentionally omitted the following scientific quantification methods:

• Identification of individuals of an indicator species, or calculations of population change,

• eDNA or other sophisticated scientific methods of biodiversity characterization,

• Ecosystem or habitat quantification at a project level,

• Species richness metrics at a project level.

We acknowledge that these compromises may mean lower market values for the VBCs issued under this standard and consider it an acceptable tradeoff for omitting scientific standards which are exclusionary to the people we directly seek to incentivize.

This methodology was co-developed with IP and LC. To date, leaders from eighteen Indigenous communities and hundreds of Indigenous smallfarmers in the Colombian Amazon have directly contributed to the design and piloting of this methodology. It is currently being considered for adoption by IP and LC groups in Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Suriname, Mexico, Panama, Bolivia, Guatemala, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Gabon, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Australia, New Zealand, the US, and Canada. It has been reviewed and refined privately and publically by hundreds of global experts using biological and anthropological considerations for biodiversity preservation, scientific understandings of complex adaptive systems, market needs for fungibility, and the urgency of minimizing further irreversible extinctions.

This methodology was designed for behavior change. IP and LC can preserve or traffick rare species. They have unrestricted access to hunt or study the rarest and most valuable species on earth. They have traditional knowledge that far exceeds our best botanical and behavioral science. We have no choice but to fully respect their autonomy. This methodology is intentionally designed to economically incentivize positive role models within IP and LC and enables them to self-reinforce traditional ways of life which conserve and retain knowledge of biodiversity in its fullest expression.

We remain hopeful and determined that this methodology will have the intended effect of strengthening the people with the biggest global impact on conserving biodiversity.

The Savimbo Team eco at savimbo.com savimbo.com