What are biodiversity credits, and how are they being used in Colorado?

Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

I watched something on Facebook recently, one of those “I’m going to tell you the truth” kinds of videos.

I didn’t copy the link. It’s not worth referring back to anyway. The gist of the video is simple: the man in the video claims that part of the reason for species reintroduction (he is not from Colorado, nor talking about Colorado) is so that the landowners can make big money selling biodiversity credits.

I asked every land conservation trust I could find an email for and, with one exception, could not find one that admitted to selling biodiversity credits. A lot of the ones that emailed me back said that no market for selling them exists as of yet in Colorado.

This doesn’t mean that the topic has no value; it doesn’t mean we should close the file, drop it in the drawer, and go home for the day. While there’s no market now, while there’s only one active operation now, it doesn’t mean that this will be the way it is forever.

I.e. some educating is in order so you can thoughtfully join any conversation on it in the future.

Let’s back up to answer the question I skipped over earlier. What are biodiversity credits?

Biodiversity credits are a lot like the carbon credits (see the first link below for an earlier newsletter about how the State Land Board is all jazzed about selling carbon credits under Director Rosmarino’s leadership).

In short, it’s a way to monetize nature, but not in the ways you might be used to thinking of. Instead of renting out land for, say, farming, you would make your land a nature preserve, take care of the natives and introduce others, and then sell that to someone willing to pay so that you conserve wildlife.

Quoting from the second link below with link and Queen’s English intact (a pretty decent beginner’s level explainer page–worth reading):

“A measurable unit of biodiversity sold to organisations and individuals to help them improve biodiversity. The jargon describes it as becoming ‘nature positive,’ which means helping to halt and reverse biodiversity decline by 2030. In practice it means when you buy a credit, the money funds projects that improve biodiversity.”

Who would buy such things, and why? The explainer page linked second below, links to a pretty good study on the state of the market which I link to third below. From that page, you can download the group’s report.

I’ll leave it to you to read through the report in more detail, but the executive summary’s results are pretty easy to share. Screenshots 1a – 1c attached give you the report’s broad statistics and conclusions.

They also hint at some things I’ve seen in other resources on the topic. In addition to the credits having cache among some companies and individuals, I have seen them mentioned as having value similar to carbon credits (“indulgences” as I often call them): you can sin in one area, buy a credit and be washed clean.

One last thing to mention. It doesn’t exactly fit within the confines of biodiversity credits, but it’s close so worth including.

The fourth link below is to the USDA’s page on the Wetlands Mitigation Banking Program (WMBP). Similar to biodiversity credits, a WMBP lets landowners create/improve/expand wetlands on their land so that someone else can destroy one somewhere else (or you can destroy one somewhere else on your land). The USDA will help in the creation of said wetlands and banks via a competitive grant program.

Quoting from the site with link intact:

“Wetland mitigation banking is the restoration, creation or enhancement of wetlands for the purpose of compensating for unavoidable impacts to wetlands at another location. Wetland mitigation banking is commonly used to compensate for wetland impacts from development, but it also used for impacts from agriculture.”

As with the biodiversity credits, you purchase an indulgence to mitigate your sin.

In the post immediately following this one, I will share how Colorado’s own minor forays into ecological “sales” similar to what I briefly outline above.

https://coloradoaccountabilityproject.substack.com/p/heads-up-in-greeley-colorado-state

https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/a-beginners-guide-to-biodiversity-credits

https://pollinationgroup.com/global-perspectives/state-of-voluntary-biodiversity-credit-markets/

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/wetland-mitigation-banking-program

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

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