Podcast: Equal Parts Hope and Despair Greet New Financing Mechanisms on International Day of Biodiversity (Loss)

This ‘Green Development Mechanism’ (or GDM) certification would in essence create units of managed landscapes for sale in a voluntary market, which Vorhies thinks could move billions of new dollars into biodiversity conservation through private transactions in voluntary trades.   The landscape certification scheme is an idea in development but as Vorhies explains, could create something akin to a real estate market for biodiversity.   Instead of selling square footage of office spaces in New York City, however, you’d be selling hectares of landscape management in a biodiversity hotspot like the Amazon rainforest.

What is the demand driver of voluntary purchases of certified landscape management?   Vorhies explains that companies who recognize the global impact on biodiversity from various activities in their supply chain could ‘offset’ their impact by purchasing GDM-certified landscape management.   This diverges from traditional ‘biodiversity offsets’ which (after avoidance, minimization, and restoration measures) offset the footprint of impacts on a particular ecosystem type so, for example, a mining company impacting Australian native vegetation would offset with the same type of native vegetation.   A supply-chain offset would imply far-flung and difficult-to-measure global impacts, which Vorhies thinks could be supplied by GDM-certified landscapes worldwide.  

Related Audio

        Click to hear about CBD’s LifeWeb Initiative and other financing schemes.
              Click to read the accompanying article on Ecosystem Marketplace.