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  • Executive summary
  • Front Material
    • Contents
    • Index of figures
    • Index of tables
    • Acronyms and abbreviations
    • Terms and definitions
  • Getting started
  • Introduction
    • The urgency of targeted biodiversity conservation
    • Simplicity, complexity theory, and biodiversity
    • Inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and local communities by design
    • Biodiversity methodology benefits
  • Overall description
    • Objectives
    • Scope
    • Limitations
  • Project description
    • Principles
      • Principles of working with IP
    • Eligibility criteria
      • Land ownership and law
    • Additionality
    • Project boundaries
      • Spatial limits of the BCP
      • Temporal limits of the BCP
      • Grouped projects
    • Implementation plan
      • Measurement approaches
      • Indicator species observations
      • Risks and uncertainty
    • Effective participation
      • Community involvement
      • Capacity for action
      • Financial transparency
      • Safeguards checklist
  • Calculation
    • Unit calculations
    • Area calculations
    • Time calculations
    • Integrity calculations
    • Value calculations
  • Baseline assessment
    • Baseline ecosystem categorization
    • Analysis of agents and drivers of biodiversity loss
    • Baseline biodiversity (optional)
    • Baseline risk of biodiversity loss
    • Indicator species selection
    • Indicator species integrity score
  • SDG contributions
  • Monitoring plan
    • Monitoring report
    • Additional monitoring requirements
  • Authors
  • References
  • Appendices
    • Appendix A: Biodiversity methodologies comparison table
    • Appendix B: Sample legal proof of land control
    • Appendix C: Sample baseline ecosystem categorization
    • Appendix D: Species categorization of richness
    • Appendix E: Sample selection of indicator species
    • Appendix F: Sample indicator-species observations
    • Appendix G: Sample open-source code and calculation
    • Appendix H: Indigenous authors
    • Appendix I: Letters of support
      • Fernando Ayerbe, Ornithology
      • Ned Hording, Biodiversity
      • Olber Llanos, Zoologist
      • Mike McColm, Ethnology
      • Peter Thomas, Anthropologist
      • Jesús Argente, Marine biology
      • Sara Andreotti, Marine Biologist
      • Carolina Romero, Lawyer.
      • Daniel Urbano, Herpetologist
      • Ramesh Boonratana PhD, Primatologist
      • Theodore Schmitt, Conservationists
      • Anja Hutschenreiter, Ecologist and Tropical Conservationist
      • Miguel Chindoy, Indigenous leader
    • Appendix J: Sample uses of biodiversity unit
    • Appendix K: How to do FPIC
    • Appendix L: Independent Expert Panel Checklist
    • Appendix M: How to calculate a biodiversity credit by hand
    • Appendix N: How to calculate home ranges
    • Appendix O: How to calculate integrity scores
  • Document history
  • Disclaimer
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  1. Appendices

Appendix J: Sample uses of biodiversity unit

Examples of alternate uses of the biodiversity unit in other methodologies

PreviousMiguel Chindoy, Indigenous leaderNextAppendix K: How to do FPIC

Last updated 1 year ago

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We've made a strong call to action for the interoperability of our , to corporate disclosure organizations, and multiple crediting bodies. Our hope is that although this methodology is limited in its applicability, an interoperable unit will spur market adoption, innovation in the field, and wider market adoption of biodiversity credits.

As described the Unit of a VBC is Area (ha) x Value (ecosystem value normalized to Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze) x 𝚫 Integrity (where all metrics, methodologies, and certifications lie) / Time (2 months).

This appendix is to provide examples for why this unit is interoperable, and can be used for any conservation, restoration, eradication, or pollination methodology. The key lies in the fact that normalizing Time, Value, and Area, allows methodologies to converge in their integrity additionality from the perspective of the ecosystem itself.

It also controls for industry lobbying by groups with strong financial incentives and better science in ecosystems which have been frankly inaccessible to true animal populations for hundreds of years (i.e. farmland in US and Europe), when compared against IP and LC protecting planetary treasures with little to no resources (i.e. fishing village in Mexico guarding blue whale UNESCO birthing site).

  • Integrity range is from -1 (moonscaped dead zones) to +1 primary ecosystem in pristine natural condition. (National parks, game parks, UNESCO World Heritage sites, primary Amazon forest, etc.)

  • Every competing metric and methodology and the certifiers and disclosures can interoperate here. Conservation, eradication, pollination, restoration, and corporate impacts.

  • Methodologies, as approved by certifiers, have a standardized or MRV integrity effect. I.e. a methodology perfectly executed moves Integrity up, or credits for it in it's intact state.

  • Impacts, as approved by regulators, have a standardized or MRV integrity effect. i.e. an impact correctly documented moves Integrity down, and/or fines for its degradation.

  • Projects can get partial crediting, or demerits for partial effects.

Example calculations (with loose estimates) based on this unit include:

Methodology type
Impact
Credits issued

Conservation

100% conserved Amazon primary forest through an indicator species methodology in a biodiversity hotspot.

5 ha of 100% intact ecosystem in a Platinum ecosystem.

5 Platinum credits

Restoration

Farmland converted to regenerative farming. Log-normalized increase in ecosystem integrity from 50%-> 60% in an IUCN 'Vulnerable' ecosystem.

100 ha of farmland * 10% increase in a Silver ecosystem

10 Silver credists

Pollination

Bees added to central Austin as pollinators. 0.01% increase over 3 mile radius in ecosystem with no intrinsic ranking.

7,321 ha * 0.01 increase in Bronze ecosystem.

73 Bronze credits

Eradication

Sea urchins pulled from kelp beds in California's kelp forests.

200 ha * 5% increase in Gold ecosystem

10 Gold credits

Corporate impact

Petroleum drilling in ocean desert.

1000 ha * 5% impact in Bronze ecosystem

-50 Bronze credits

Corporate impact

Military oil spill in Hawaiian bay.

500 ha * 30% impact in Gold ecosystem

-150 Gold credits

VBC unit