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In recent years, wildfires, flooding and extreme weather events have propelled environmental concerns into the mainstream. Yet there is one aspect of environmental change which often receives less attention, mostly because it is less immediately visible: biodiversity loss.

Biodiversity is the variety and variability among living organisms and the ecosystems in which they are a part of. It includes the diversity within species, between species, and within ecosystems.
There are four main ways in which we measure biodiversity: 
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Genetic diversity &#8211; is the variety of genes within a species. Each species is made up of individuals that have their own particular genetic composition. Variation in genetic diversity is essential to the long-term survival of a species, as it enables evolution and adaptation within a changing environment.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Species richness &#8211; is the variety of different species within a habitat or region. So far about <a href="http://cbd.int/convention/guide/#:~:text=Scientists%20reckon%20that%20there%20are,crops%20and%20breeds%20of%20livestock.">1.75 million species</a> have been identified, although scientists reckon that there are actually about <a href="http://cbd.int/convention/guide/#:~:text=Scientists%20reckon%20that%20there%20are,crops%20and%20breeds%20of%20livestock.">13 million species</a> (estimates range from <a href="http://cbd.int/convention/guide/#:~:text=Scientists%20reckon%20that%20there%20are,crops%20and%20breeds%20of%20livestock.">3 to 100 million</a>).  </li>
<li aria-level="1">Ecosystem species diversity &#8211; is the variety of species with a specific habitat or region that occur nowhere else in the world.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Ecosystem diversity – is the variety of ecosystems in a given place, such as those that occur in deserts, forests, wetlands, lakes and agricultural landscapes. An ecosystem is a community of organisms and their physical environment interacting together. </li>
</ul>
Biodiverse environments provide us with a wealth of natural resources. All our food systems depend on biodiversity, and natural ecosystems provide us with fuel, water, medicines and many other goods. Healthy ecosystems also provide us with ecosystem services such as soil formation, nutrient storage, and protection against natural hazards and disasters.
Reversing the trend of biodiversity loss is also an important part of the solution to tackling the climate crisis. <a href="https://www.cbd.int/gbo/gbo5/publication/gbo-5-spm-en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Around one third</a> of the net reductions in greenhouse gas emissions required to meet the Paris Agreement goals could come from ‘nature-based solutions’; actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems.

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Biodiversity is declining faster than it has at any other time in human history. The <a href="https://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-report-2020/save-the-axolotl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">current rate of extinction</a> is tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10 million years, and it is still accelerating. Although the entire human population represents just <a href="https://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-report-2020/save-the-axolotl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">0.01% of all living creatures, humanity has already caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals biomass and half of all plants</a>. 
Since the industrial revolution, human activities have increasingly destroyed and degraded forests, grasslands, wetlands and other important ecosystems. 75% of the Earth&#8217;s ice-free land surface has already been significantly altered, most of the oceans are polluted, and more than 85% of wetlands have been lost. 
Many scientists believe that we are at the start of a sixth mass extinction &#8211; defined as when <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50267709_Has_the_Earth%27s_Sixth_Mass_Extinction_Already_Arrived_Nature" target="_blank" rel="noopener">over 75% of all species disappear </a>within a short space of geological time (typically less than 2 million years). There have been<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50267709_Has_the_Earth%27s_Sixth_Mass_Extinction_Already_Arrived_Nature" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 5 mass extinctions in the last 540 million years,</a> according to the fossil record. The most recent was when the dinosaurs became extinct <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/mass-extinction" target="_blank" rel="noopener">66 million years ago.</a> 
Extinction is a natural phenomenon, however human activities are accelerating the rate at which these extinctions occur. Human activity endangers biodiversity in at least five main ways: 
<ol>
<li>Changes in land and sea use &#8211; This refers to the modification of the environment in which a species lives, by complete removal, fragmentation or reduction in quality of key habitat. Multiple human drivers such as agricultural and industrial expansion have already led to the loss of <a href="https://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-report-2020/save-the-axolotl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">85% of wetlands, altered 75% of land surface, and impacted 66% of ocean area</a>. </li>
<li>Over-exploitation of plants and animals &#8211; through harvesting, logging, hunting and fishing. For example, fishing is one of the most significant drivers of declines in ocean wildlife populations, with more than <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/overfishing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one-third of the world&#8217;s assessed fisheries</a> currently pushed beyond their biological limits.</li>
<li>Pollution &#8211; habitats are being destroyed by untreated waste; by pollutants from industrial, mining and agricultural activities; and by oil spills and toxic dumping. </li>
<li>Invasive species &#8211; are species that are found outside of their natural distribution range as a result of human intervention. They can compete with native species for space, food and other resources; can be a predator for native species; or spread diseases that were not previously present in the environment. The occurrence of invasive species increased by <a href="https://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-report-2020/save-the-axolotl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">40% globally since 1980. </a></li>
<li>Climate change &#8211; affects biodiversity as climate variables largely <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-019-02420-x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">determine the geographic distribution range </a>of species. When climate is no longer suitable, species either have to move, or they go locally extinct. Climate change exacerbates nature loss, which in turn reduces nature’s resilience to climate change &#8211; a vicious circle.</li>
</ol>

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While most of us are now familiar with the Paris Agreement, and its goal to limit global warming to 1.5°C,  the Convention on Biological Diversity and the international targets to tackle the biodiversity crisis are less well known. 
The <a href="https://www.cbd.int/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Convention on Biological Diversity</a> (CBD) is the international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity. It opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and entered into force in December of 1993. This treaty has been ratified by 196 nations and seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services. It has three main objectives:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The conservation of biological diversity </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The sustainable use of the components of biological biodiversity</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources. </li>
</ol>
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<h2>Failure to reach the 2020 Aichi biodiversity targets</h2>
In the 2010 UN biodiversity Conference in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, the CBD adopted a revised and updated Strategic Plan for Biodiversity which included 20 Aichi Biodiversity targets for the 2011-2020 period. 
These <a href="https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets</a> were targeted around 5 strategic goals, setting benchmarks for improvements across drivers of biodiversity loss, pressures on biodiversity, the state of biodiversity, the benefits derived from it and the implementation of relevant policies and enabling conditions. Parties agreed to translate the overarching international framework into revised and updated national biodiversity strategies and action these plans within two years. 
Come 2020, at the global level <a href="https://www.cbd.int/gbo/gbo5/publication/gbo-5-spm-en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">none of the 20 targets were fully achieved</a>. Six of the targets for biodiversity loss were partly achieved, however on the whole progress was shocking, and the other 14 targets , such as eliminating subsidies that are contributing to biodiversity decline, or halving the rate at which natural ecosystems are being destroyed, were completely missed.

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If we carry on our current trajectory, biodiversity will continue to decline. However, <a href="https://www.cbd.int/gbo/gbo5/publication/gbo-5-spm-en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">available evidence</a> says that despite the failure to meet the Aichi biodiversity targets, it&#8217;s not too late to slow, halt and eventually reverse current trends. 
The first part of the UN biodiversity conference took place online in October 2021. The second part is currently scheduled to take place in the third quarter of 2022 in <a href="https://sdg.iisd.org/events/un-biodiversity-conference-cbd-cop-15-part-2/">Kunming Yunnan Province, China</a>. This will be the fifteenth meeting of the parties (COP-15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and during this conference global leaders will set the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. 
According to the most recent <a href="https://www.cbd.int/gbo/gbo5/publication/gbo-5-spm-en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global Biodiversity Outlook report</a>, this framework must include a portfolio of actions in the following areas, each of which is necessary but none on its own is sufficient: 
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Conservation and Restoration &#8211; Efforts to conserve and restore biodiversity need to be scaled up at all levels using methods that will depend on the local context, but include setting up protected areas, large-scale habitat restoration and improvements in the condition of nature across farmed and urban landscapes as well as inland water bodies, coasts and oceans.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Climate Action &#8211; Globally climate change has not been the most important driver of the loss of biodiversity to date, yet in the coming decades it is projected to become as, or more, important than the other drivers. Efforts to keep climate change well below 2°C and as close to 1.5°C as possible are needed.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Reducing environmental pressures &#8211; Measures are needed to address all remaining pressures driving biodiversity loss including invasive species, pollution, and the unsustainable exploitation of biodiversity.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Sustainable production &#8211; Transformations are needed in the production of goods and services, especially food. This includes adopting agricultural methods that can meet a growing global demand, whilst reducing negative impacts on the environment.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Reduced consumption &#8211; Transformations are similarly needed to limit the demand for increased food production by adopting different diets and reducing food waste, and in limiting the consumption of other material goods and services that affect biodiversity, for example in forestry, energy and provision of fresh water.</li>
</ul>

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Humanity stands at a crossroads. Biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, and the pressures driving this decline are intensifying. 
In ‘business as usual’ scenarios the trend of biodiversity decline is <a href="https://www.cbd.int/gbo/gbo5/publication/gbo-5-spm-en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">projected to continue until 2050 and beyond</a>, due to the increasing impacts of land and sea use change, overexploitation, climate change, and invasive species introductions. This projected decline will affect all people, but in particular will have a detrimental effect on indigenous people and local communities, and the world&#8217;s poor and vulnerable, because of their heavy reliance on biodiversity for their livelihoods and wellbeing.
We need to act on the biodiversity crisis. At Ecologi, we plant <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/updates/year-2-of-the-ecologi-forests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">native and biodiverse trees,</a> helping to restore forest cover and bringing biodiversity back to areas where it has been lost. We also fund projects to <a href="https://ecologi.com/projects/forest-protection-in-northern-zimbabwe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">protect existing forests</a>, and to restore other ecosystems including <a href="https://ecologi.com/projects/peatland-restoration-in-indonesia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">peatlands</a>. You can read more about how our projects are helping support biodiversity <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/blog/how-does-deforestation-impact-wildlife-and-biodiversity-what-you-need-to-know">here</a>, or <a href="https://ecologi.com/plan">sign up</a> to Ecologi and help contribute to these projects.  
We have an opportunity to act, and turn this trend of loss around. Let&#8217;s make this the decade that we take meaningful action on the biodiversity crisis.
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<a href="https://ecologi.com/business/overview">Sign up</a> to Ecologi today to start taking real climate action.

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UK Voluntary Carbon Market Guide: Best Practices for Climate Action

The voluntary carbon market plays an important role in corporate climate strategies – but its effectiveness relies on buyers doing due diligence and rigorous quality assessment on each project, as well as placing the purchase of credits in the right place in the climate journey.
To ensure meaningful climate impact, businesses must develop a comprehensive carbon strategy and find ways to fund only high-quality credits in the voluntary carbon market – and this guide shows you how to do so with Ecologi.

<h2>Table of contents</h2>
<ul>
<li>When to buy carbon credits</li>
<li>Our new carbon projects assessment framework</li>
<li>Ecologi&#8217;s core due diligence principles</li>
<li>How Ecologi scores and ranks carbon credit projects</li>
<li>Questions to ask your carbon credit supplier</li>
<li>Take action in the voluntary carbon market</li>
</ul>

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<h2>When should businesses buy carbon credits in the voluntary market?</h2>
Businesses must not use credits in place of making direct, measurable reductions in their emissions. Instead, follow these steps to ensure you buy your carbon credits on the right step of your corporate climate action journey, and in the right way:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Measure your emissions first – to allow you to understand where your business’s emissions are coming from. 
</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Set science-based targets and work towards them – set ambitious targets aligned with the SBTi and compatible with the global 1.5ºC warming target.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM) – design your BVCM portfolio to work alongside your decarbonisation plan and address your unabated emissions in each reporting year. Align it with SBTi guidance and the Oxford Principles. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Buy high-quality carbon credits – use this guide to ensure the carbon credits you buy meet rigorous quality standards. Remember, under the SBTi framework you’ll also need permanent carbon removal credits for neutralising your residual emissions when you reach your net-zero date.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Disclose and report transparently – publicly disclose information about your carbon credit purchases, and clearly communicate the limited role of carbon credits in your broader sustainability strategy.</li>
</ol>

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<h2>Ecologi&#8217;s carbon project assessment framework</h2>
In April 2025, we published a report summarising how we assess carbon credit projects against our rigorous proprietary rubric. A snapshot of what goes into our carbon credit project assessment is below, or you <a href="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20250428124112/Ecologi_Whitepaper_A4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">download the full whitepaper here</a>.

<h2>Carbon project due diligence: Ecologi’s core principles</h2>
At Ecologi, we maintain general due diligence principles which we apply universally across the voluntary carbon market, to support our efforts to supply only high-quality carbon credits.
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">ICROA-endorsed standards only – we supply credits exclusively from carbon standards which are ICROA-endorsed.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Responsive to ICVCM decisions – we support the ICVCM’s two-tick approach to providing CCP-Approval to project methodologies, and we go further still, to assess individual projects on their merits and limitations as well.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Keep the carbon credit life cycle as short as possible – 75% of our credits in 2024 came directly from project developers and their nominated dispensaries (as opposed to intermediaries on the secondary market), maximising the proportion of purchase price which goes to the developer.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Locally-appropriate projects only – we take care to ensure that supported projects are being applied in appropriate geographies, where they can have the greatest impact.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Deep project-level scrutiny – our extensive assessment criteria are specific to each type of project, and we assess every project against these criteria, ensuring the project’s specifics have been taken into account.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Methodological consensus – we synthesise data we receive from our partners Sylvera, BeZero Carbon, Calyx Global and Renoster) with our own in-house analysis to uncover where there is consensus about project quality, and improve confidence.</li>
</ul>

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<h2>How to evaluate carbon credits: Ecologi&#8217;s scoring methodology</h2>
We designed a three-layer assessment process which takes into account the merits and limitations of the carbon standard used, the carbon credit methodology used, and of the individual project design.
The tables below summarise some of the data inputs we use at each stage.

<h3>Assessment level: Carbon Standard</h3>
Examples: Gold Standard, Verra, Puro Earth, Isometric, Plan Vivo.

<h3>Assessment level: Methodology (or ‘Protocol’)</h3>
Examples: GS TPDDTEC, VM0048, ACM0002.

<h3>Assessment level: Project</h3>
Examples: GS 10790, VCS 1571.

Criteria in the assessment are categorised as either quality criteria or risk criteria, and are segmented by our three pillars of impact: Climate, Nature and People. Based on how it meets each criterion, the project gains points for quality criteria, and loses points for excess risk – ultimately giving a risk-adjusted value out of 100 for each of these pillars.
Having gathered our risk-adjusted pillar scores, we use our own unique scoring formula which weights the risk-adjusted Climate score of the project equally with the combined risk-adjusted Nature and People scores. The formula then produces an ‘overall’ score (also out of 100) for the project. In order to be supplied by Ecologi, projects must meet a minimum overall score of 80, and must achieve no lower than 65 in any given risk-adjusted pillar score.

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<h2>Key questions to ask carbon credit suppliers</h2>
Selecting the right carbon credit provider is important to help guide you to make informed choices as part of your corporate sustainability strategy. Before purchasing carbon credits, businesses should ask:
<h3>Project quality </h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you assess/validate/underwrite project quality? If so, how?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do your projects get good ratings from the ratings agencies? If so, what ratings are they?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you source credits directly from project developers, or from the secondary market?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you monitor projects over time to ensure continued success, and how do you remedy it, if a project&#8217;s quality drops?</li>
</ul>
<h3>Due diligence</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you ensure you are supporting the right projects in the right locations?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you account for project permanence and mitigate risks?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What makes your projects additional?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you assess the project&#8217;s impacts on climate, nature and people?</li>
</ul>
<h3>Positioning</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you contribute to the development of a high integrity voluntary carbon market?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you align your portfolios with the Oxford Principles? If so, how?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you reflect ICVCM guidance on carbon credit methodologies and technologies?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you build multi-year portfolios that align to mid- &amp; long-term SBTs?</li>
</ul>
As the voluntary carbon market evolves, corporate buyers have the power and the responsibility to demand high-impact credits to drive real climate progress. This means buyers have a responsibility to do due diligence before placing an order for carbon credits.

<h2>Take action in the voluntary carbon market</h2>
As a business committed to corporate climate action, understanding the voluntary carbon market is essential for making informed decisions about carbon credits. Our comprehensive whitepaper provides deeper insights into creating an effective sustainability strategy.
<a href="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20250428124112/Ecologi_Whitepaper_A4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Download our full whitepaper</a> to learn how your business can navigate the voluntary carbon market with confidence.

<h2>Connect with one of our climate experts</h2>
Please complete our form to arrange a 30-minute discovery call to discuss your goals and get a tailored solution for your business.

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