Executive summary
Area-based, interoperable, rights-of-nature compliant, Indigenous-led biodiversity unit
This biodiversity unit was co-developed with Indigenous Peoples concerned about the commercialization of Nature. It functions for tracking and trading any biodiversity action, in any ecosystem, for any industry.
We present and explain an area-based biodiversity unit co-designed by Savimbo, an Indigenous-led company, and our friends: >99 Indigenous leaders, in 25 countries, and 55 Indigenous nations. Indigenous Peoples guard 80% of the biodiversity and 30% of the planet's intact ecosystems. Their perspective adds unique value to biodiversity science.
The area-based unit is simple. A fixed Area of one hectare, for a fixed Time of one month with measured Integrity reported on a scale from 0-1. Where full integrity is an ecosystem with every ecological niche available to, and filled by, native species.
The unit is independently categorized by its location and assigned a Value (Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze) representing the underlying biodiversity density and threat of the ecosystem.
Units can be issued as biodiversity "credits" and the terms are used interchangeably in this document, but for those who don't like the word "credit" it can also apply to "certificate", "outcome metric" or other more palatable words.
This unit has rapidly achieved widespread adoption around the world, and continues to be of intense interest to developers, market-makers, foundations, Indigenous nations, regulatory bodies, and scientists working in biodiversity. Why?
This unit works. Here's how it works.
This unit is open-source and free to use. We intend to give the market a good unit, a unit that truly represents Nature. So a $180B commercial market or an $81B impact market does not form around false objectives, or quantify Nature in ways unlike itself.
This unit is not a metric or methodology. There are over 170 ways to measure carbon with one unit: a ton of carbon. We anticipate many more ways to characterize biodiversity, often varying by ecosystem, or action (restoration vs conservation). While this unit was originally designed for a conservation methodology. It is not limited to such actions and is instead designed to put localized biodiversity actions in a comparable format for buyers and regulators of global biodiversity outcomes, who may not understand the different metrics and methodologies involved.
This unit is from the perspective of other species. Far too much work in the biodiversity space is biased by unquestioned paradigms about cost, and value, of other species to humans. Biodiverse areas have inverse funding (Pirinon 2024). This unit clearly, simply, and publically directs funding and value toward structurally intact ecosystems that protect the most life on this planet. We seek to remedy species-bias by setting an incontrovertible focus on the lived experience of other species — as any industry focused on biodiversity ought to do. Species have a fundamental right in their very DNA to inhabit the ecosystems they evolved in.
This unit has nothing to do with cost. Biodiversity is conceivably the only market on the planet where we stop thinking about our own species, and instead think overtly about our obligations to other forms of planetary life. The cost of a unit will be strongly dependent on its implementation zone (cost of underlying land), and the effort of the actions involved. Currently, restoration ballparks at $25/ha/month while conservation averages $3/ha/month. This unit ignores the cost of actions and focuses on the global comparability of outcomes.
An important note for the unit, we cannot prevent such uses of a public unit, but we are strongly opposed to the practice of biodiversity offsetting as it violates both Indigenous Peoples' values and the Rights of Nature. While carbon is a basic element and can be emitted and sequestered from the atmosphere, a living species cannot be cycled between death and life. Extinction is a forever event. We do think interoperable tracking for impacts is desirable at global, national, and corporate levels. But do not endorse financial transactions that do not value life. We believe these practices and the mindset that bases them will be as abhorrent to our children as the ancient practice of human slavery now is to us.
We remain hopeful and determined that this unit will have the intended effect of putting actions for Nature, in terms of Nature, with the understanding and insight of cultures that truly value Nature and whose actions and values have proven their holistic benefits.
The Savimbo Team eco at savimbo.com savimbo.com
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