Biodiversity credits

Biodiversity credits are measurable, verifiable and tradable units that represent a positive outcome for biodiversity, such as the conservation or restoration of nature. Buyers finance an action that benefits nature, within the logic of nature-positive action.

They are an emerging instrument that seeks to channel private capital toward protecting ecosystems, complementing public funding. Their value depends on the outcome for nature being real, additional and durable.

How they differ from offsets

It is important not to confuse biodiversity credits with biodiversity offsets. Credits are intended to fund positive contributions, not necessarily to compensate for damage caused elsewhere. For that reason they must not be presented as a licence to harm nature. This is also the difference from carbon credits, which represent reductions or removals of greenhouse gases, not biodiversity outcomes. Nature, moreover, is not interchangeable like a tonne of CO2, which makes a local focus essential.

Integrity challenges

This is a young voluntary market with real integrity challenges worth understanding:

• Robust measurement and metrics: quantifying a biodiversity outcome is complex and demands sound methodologies.
• Additionality: proving the action would not have happened without the credit's financing.
• Permanence: ensuring the benefit to nature endures over time.
• Avoiding double counting: making sure the same outcome is not counted twice.
• Community rights: respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC) and sharing benefits fairly.

Market governance

Several initiatives are working to give this market credibility:

• The International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (IAPB) launched a Framework in October 2024, during COP16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity held in Cali (Colombia).
• High-Level Principles were co-developed with the Biodiversity Credit Alliance (BCA) and the World Economic Forum in 2025. The BCA also has a Strategic Plan for 2025-2026.
• At the resumed session of COP16, the Cali Fund was launched, linked to the fair sharing of benefits from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources.
• In July 2025, the European Commission published a roadmap and set up an expert group on nature credits to explore a European market.

What it means for your organisation

Biodiversity credits can form part of a natural capital and nature-based solutions strategy, and connect with reporting frameworks such as the TNFD. Before acquiring them, it is wise to prioritise reducing your own impacts and to demand transparency on methodology, additionality and benefit-sharing.

How Manglai helps you

Taking part in these markets rigorously requires first understanding your relationship with nature and your impacts. Manglai helps you structure and measure your environmental information so you can make informed decisions. Discover how Manglai can help you embed nature into your strategy.