Again, really useful and interesting. My major observation of this emerging space, when looking at numerous operators, over and over I found myself saying, “so where are your on the ground projects, show me some case studies, show me your project portfolio..”, the whole category is wrapped up in business managerialism and financial jargon. If trust & demand generation is an issue, and particularly when you think about the supplier to buyer power dynamics you laid out, the history of global north led “development”, the over-powering language of commodification, the market needs to think about what it is communicating; this is about people, our relationship with nature and life on the planet, I think buyers will need to see this, feel it, and sure, there’s got to be credible MRV, but as with any purchase the ‘rational’ is second order to the emotional.
Thanks for sharing your perspective, Simas! You hit the nail on the head with your emphasis on the critical need to collaborate with Indigenous Peoples. But I can also say from an asset manager’s ESG perspective, the bad rep around carbon offsetting really has a knock-on effect on the biodiversity credit market. It’s the fear of greenwashing accusations together with a broader lack of understanding what such credits can actually achieve, that is holding many asset managers back at the moment to embrace the biodiversity market (coupled with other drivers like the anti-ESG backlash in the U.S that got many asset managers being more cautious in launching new ESG initiatives). I also agree that regulation will be a key driver to moving the needle in this space, but I’m curious to hear your perspective, Simas, on the TNFD framework. As increasingly firms are committing to adopt the TNFD framework early, do you see this as a potential catalyst for the voluntary biodiversity credit market?
Again, really useful and interesting. My major observation of this emerging space, when looking at numerous operators, over and over I found myself saying, “so where are your on the ground projects, show me some case studies, show me your project portfolio..”, the whole category is wrapped up in business managerialism and financial jargon. If trust & demand generation is an issue, and particularly when you think about the supplier to buyer power dynamics you laid out, the history of global north led “development”, the over-powering language of commodification, the market needs to think about what it is communicating; this is about people, our relationship with nature and life on the planet, I think buyers will need to see this, feel it, and sure, there’s got to be credible MRV, but as with any purchase the ‘rational’ is second order to the emotional.
Thanks for sharing your perspective, Simas! You hit the nail on the head with your emphasis on the critical need to collaborate with Indigenous Peoples. But I can also say from an asset manager’s ESG perspective, the bad rep around carbon offsetting really has a knock-on effect on the biodiversity credit market. It’s the fear of greenwashing accusations together with a broader lack of understanding what such credits can actually achieve, that is holding many asset managers back at the moment to embrace the biodiversity market (coupled with other drivers like the anti-ESG backlash in the U.S that got many asset managers being more cautious in launching new ESG initiatives). I also agree that regulation will be a key driver to moving the needle in this space, but I’m curious to hear your perspective, Simas, on the TNFD framework. As increasingly firms are committing to adopt the TNFD framework early, do you see this as a potential catalyst for the voluntary biodiversity credit market?