Sustainable Management models and valUe chains foR small Forests

Publications

Mapping the landscape of Voluntary Biodiversity Credits: A systematic analysis and typology of schemes

Publication . Lino, Andre Luiz Ramos; Azevedo, João; Ruaro, Renata

Growing recognition of the economic risks associated with biodiversity loss is driving demand for new conservation financing mechanisms including Voluntary Biodiversity Credits (VBCs). However, the methodologies developed or used by VBC schemes are diverse and lack comprehensive characterization. This dissertation aims to systematically identify, characterize, and classify the schemes proposed by VBC organizations and initiatives in order to establish a typology of existing approaches. The 39 identified schemes were qualitatively analyzed based on 21 aspects, and a subset of 15 variables was used in a multivariate statistical analysis involving a Chi-Square test and k-Medoids clustering. The results indicate a market at different stages of maturity, with a notable geographic discrepancy between the headquarters of the organizations (Global North) and their predominant areas of operation (Global South). The typological analysis revealed five groupings of identified VBC schemes and methodologies with distinct developmental stages and approaches, concluding that schematic robustness is associated with assessments across multiple ecological domains, considering off-site impacts (leakage), avoiding double counting, and ensuring long-term monitoring with a retroactive baseline period. As the VBC market is emerging in the wake of skepticism from other nature markets, it would be expected that the organizations design their schemes and frameworks with high levels of transparency and methodological rigor, however, as our research indicates, the observed lack of transparency and the heterogeneity in the available data are particularly concerning. This suggests that these challenges may be systemic and inherent to voluntary nature markets, pointing to a disconnect between the proclaimed objectives of high integrity and the pressures of a market that demand simplicity and scalability with ecological rigor in the assessment. Fundamentally, the current scenario of the Voluntary Biodiversity Credits market faces uncertainties and the risks of greenwashing, requiring all actors to make a genuine effort to ensure high integrity, transparency and effectiveness in their biodiversity measurement.

2025Master thesis

Open access