LogoLogo
Savimbo homepageBuy creditsSpanish
  • 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
Powered by GitBook
LogoLogo

Follow us

  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • LinkedIn

About Savimbo

  • Science
  • Buy credits
  • About us
  • Donate

Indigenous authors

  • Jhony Lopez
  • Fernando Lezama
  • Blog

© 2023 Savimbo Inc. All rights reserved.

On this page

Was this helpful?

  1. Appendices

Appendix M: How to calculate a biodiversity credit by hand

We DON'T recommend manual calculations. But if you want to do them, here’s how.

PreviousAppendix L: Independent Expert Panel ChecklistNextAppendix N: How to calculate home ranges

Last updated 1 year ago

Was this helpful?

Biodiversity credits can be calculated by hand, but there is a high probability of error from data overlapping in space and time. Here are simple instructions for how to do this using the free software Google Earth Engine Pro with sample videos.

1) Get a KML for your crediting area

A simple .kml polygon of the in your BCP site can be generated on Google Earth Engine software using geocoordinates.

2) Create a layer for your indicator-species observation

Tip: For manual calculations, select observations that do not overlap in time as time is the most difficult summation by hand.

3) Calculate the area credited

Draw a polygon by hand that gives you the intersection of the crediting area and the observation area. The number of hectares in the area, multiplied by the indicator-species integrity score will be the number of your biodiversity credits.

4) Overlapping observations

Overlapping observations with different integrity scores should achieve the highest integrity score in the merged area.

Create a shape for your where the area of the circle equates to the home range of the species in the observation.

As described in the section, overlapping observations with the same date, will have a merged crediting area.

indicator species observation
Calculations
crediting area