The Corporate Investments into Forestry and Biodiversity (CIFB) Summit in Amsterdam, held recently focused on information and methodologies for investing in natural climate solutions, particularly concerning forestry and biodiversity in the backdrop of corporations and businesses facing huge pressure to meet their net-zero targets. Source: Timberbiz
The event was attended by representatives from a large number of corporations, businesses, investors, consultancies, technology solution providers, and civil society organizations.
Dr Sepul Kanti Barua, Senior Consultant and Forest Economist at Indufor, actively participated in the discussions in various sessions of CIFB and had one-to-one meetings with several organizations for more detailed discussions.
Below are his key takeaways from the Summit:
- Market-based mechanisms for biodiversity conservation do exist. Biodiversity outsourcing and adding biodiversity premium to the wood price in exchange for setting aside certain portions of productive forest under a dedicated forest certification scheme are the most prominent examples of such mechanisms.
- Biodiversity credits, although not yet as prominent and straightforward as carbon credits, are another mechanism that is gaining traction, particularly among investors, corporates, and other private-sector actors.
- Multiple metrics, such as the area conserved and the number of conservation projects, are being used for measuring biodiversity which makes crediting it complicated.
- Metrics integrating species diversity – as pointed out in the discussion by Dr Barua – would be more comprehensive. This, however, is seen to be challenging given the technological advancements in measuring biodiversity impacts we currently
- While there is a growing demand for carbon credits, the project developers find it difficult to secure funding for developing viable carbon projects. More funding for project development would enhance the supply of quality carbon credits in the markets.
