Published by IIED, March 2020
Porras, I and Steele, P (2020) Making the market work for nature:
how biocredits can protect biodiversity and reduce poverty. IIED
Issue Paper. IIED, London.

ISBN 978-1-78431-782-9

Tackling biodiversity loss is a growing priority for human survival. Introducing incentives for positive actions could play a key role in helping to reverse this loss. This paper explores the potential of using a novel approach to promote biodiversity conservation.

Biodiversity credits or ‘biocredits’ are coherent units of measurement that track conservation actions and outcomes and can help improve tracking and transparency. When they are well-designed, they can make investments in biodiversity management more financially attractive, for example, by attracting private-sector finance.

They can be used by governments to monitor their actions and report on biodiversity commitments. And, as much of the world’s biodiversity and its richest biodiversity spots are often found in remote and poor tropical regions, we also argue that biocredits must be inclusive, and founded on fair benefit-sharing principles.

Download at https://pubs.iied.org/16664IIED 

About the authors

Ina Porras was formerly a senior researcher in IIED’s Shaping
Sustainable Markets Group. She now works as an Economics
Adviser at the Department for International Development, UK.

Paul Steele is chief economist in IIED’s Shaping Sustainable
Markets Group (www.iied.org/users/paul-steele).