Nature Credits: a new frontier for financing biodiversity
In recent years, it has become clear that tackling the climate crisis requires more than just reducing CO₂ emissions. This realization has prompted institutions and businesses to explore economic instruments that directly support biodiversity conservation. From this need, the concept of Nature Credits—or biodiversity credits—has emerged. This innovative form of environmental finance seeks to assign economic value to the essential benefits ecosystems provide.
A dynamic market bridging Europe and the global community
While the definition of Nature Credits is still being finalized, similar models have been in use worldwide for many years. In the United States, for instance, Conservation Banking and Habitat Banking have operated for over two decades, enabling the offsetting of project impacts on protected habitats and species by purchasing credits from conserved or restored areas elsewhere. Europe also has comparable systems, such as Germany’s Ökokonto and ecological compensation schemes in France, where companies can invest in publicly certified environmental restoration projects.
At the European level, the topic has become the focus of a wider strategic discussion. The European Commission has released a roadmap aiming to establish a voluntary Nature Credits market by 2027. This initiative seeks to promote private investment in nature restoration by setting common criteria, transparency standards, and shared registries to prevent fragmentation and guarantee the credibility of projects.
How Nature Credits Work
The principle is simple: a project that generates benefits for nature – such as reforestation, soil regeneration, habitat protection, or the reintroduction of native species – can quantify, certify, and make these benefits tradable through the issuance of credits.
Each Nature Credit represents a measurable and lasting positive impact, expressed with scientific indicators: increase in forest area, biodiversity enhancement, improvement in soil or water quality, reduction of erosion or pollutants.
The process involves several stages.
First, the baseline is established, which is the initial state of the ecosystem and serves as the reference point for measuring the improvements achieved by the project. These results must be additional (meaning they are not the result of actions already planned or mandatory), permanent over time, and verifiable by independent parties.
Once certified, the credits are registered in an official system, either public or private, which ensures their traceability and prevents double counting. Interested companies or organizations can then purchase the credits to partially offset their environmental impact or to support conservation programs.
Standards and Certifications: Who Verifies the Credits
One of the most delicate aspects is precisely the certification, which ensures the validity and credibility of the credits generated.
Currently, there is no single international standard for Nature Credits, but several organizations are working to define the criteria.
Among the most well-known are Verra – with its CCB (Climate, Community & Biodiversity) and VCS (Verified Carbon Standard) standards – and the Gold Standard, which has begun integrating biodiversity and ecosystem benefit components into its protocols.
At the European level, the Commission is developing common guidelines based on principles already applied in carbon markets, but adapted to the ecological complexity of nature.
Official registers are also multiplying. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Biodiversity Net Gain Register allows monitoring of projects that generate biodiversity units to offset the impact of urban development, while in Germany the eco-accounts (Ökokonto) serve as a bank of ecological credits. Similar systems for conservation areas and protected habitats exist in the United States and Colombia.
Opportunities and Challenges of an Expanding System
Interest in Nature Credits is growing rapidly and significantly, driven both by the increasing attention of investors towards environmental sustainability issues and by the widespread awareness that the loss of biodiversity has direct and substantial economic impacts on key sectors such as agriculture, water resources, tourism, and human health. This rising interest reflects a cultural and financial shift that views nature as capital to be protected and enhanced over time.
However, many industry experts recommend adopting a careful and deliberate approach when using these tools.
Translating ecological and environmental complexity into “credit units” is indeed a huge challenge and involves significant risks of excessive simplification: not all ecosystems are equivalent, and measuring the true and overall value of biodiversity is not as simple as calculating a ton of CO₂ avoided or sequestered. Each habitat, species, and ecological function has unique characteristics that must be carefully considered to avoid underestimating or overestimating their actual contribution to conservation. Another critical and central aspect concerns the permanence of positive effects achieved by conservation or environmental restoration projects: if these benefits are not maintained over time, environmental credits quickly lose their value and real significance.
For this reason, the best Nature Credits schemes include rigorous and structured procedures that involve continuous and consistent monitoring, detailed periodic reports, and independent audits to ensure transparency and reliability. Moreover, it is essential to have solid and binding financial guarantees that ensure the management and protection of the area involved in the project over the long term, in order to truly preserve biodiversity and the ecosystems on which these credits are based. Only with an integrated and rigorous approach will it be possible to effectively enhance Nature Credits as useful and credible tools for global sustainability.
There is also a concrete risk of greenwashing, which occurs when credits are used solely to improve a company’s public image without generating a real and tangible positive impact on the environment. To prevent this, recognized international standards and the European Commission strongly emphasize the need to adopt extremely rigorous criteria, ensure maximum data transparency, and guarantee full traceability of all transactions involved.
A promising opportunity for Italy
For a country like Italy, where forest area covers more than 40% of the territory and biodiversity is among the richest in Europe, Nature Credits could represent a new way to enhance and finance environmental protection and regeneration projects.
Forests, in particular, can generate credits not only related to carbon capture but also to habitat protection, soil improvement, and ecological connectivity.
This could pave the way for public-private partnerships, able to support initiatives currently funded almost exclusively by public funds — such as the PNRR — which risk being scaled back once the funding cycle ends.
For this to happen, projects must be scientifically sound, verifiable over time, and transparent in the management of benefits.
Only in this way can Nature Credits become a true tool for biodiversity conservation, and not just a new market item.
The Experience of Foreste per Sempre OdV
Since the early 2000s, Foreste per Sempre OdV has played a key role in advancing Payments for Environmental Services (PES), the cornerstone of Nature Credits. In Costa Rica, in partnership with FoNaFiFo (National Forest Financing Fund), the organization has championed conservation and reforestation projects that highlight the economic value of forest ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity protection, and water resource management. In Madagascar, Foreste per Sempre has promoted forest regeneration and conservation in collaboration with the Malagasy Ministry of Environment, creating participatory models that bring together local communities and institutions for sustainable land stewardship. These initiatives now stand as exemplary models for developing mechanisms that enhance nature, aligned with Nature Credits principles and emerging European policies.
Main Sources:
European Commission – Roadmap for a Nature Credits Market (2025)
World Economic Forum – Biodiversity Credits: High-Integrity Guide (2024)
Verra – Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards
Gold Standard Foundation – Nature-Based Solutions Framework
Natural England – Biodiversity Net Gain Register
Ecosystem Marketplace – Global Biodiversity Credit Pilots
