Time
Standardized time for a biodiversity unit
Last updated
Standardized time for a biodiversity unit
Last updated
It is critical that when understanding the Time of this unit, readers realize that time for a unit, is not the same as time for a monitoring period.
For instance, if you purchase a lollypop for $1, you can pay a $1 bill, or four $0.25c coins and it will be the same transaction. Units are about the standard "size" of the currency, not the value of the transaction. So a 20-year restoration methodology might only deliver results after a monitoring period of 1-2 years, and with this unit would issue 12 units per year. We are paying in smaller "coins" for several very sound reasons outlined below, not changing the total "price" of the transaction.
Time is always 1 month. This time period was chosen only for intuitive sensibility and pricing and market adoption of VBCs at the time of unit release based on pilot data, adopting entities, and early market signals.
Conservation credits of 1 year ~$30 were less desirable to buyers than credits of 1 month at ~$2.50 which was closer to market pricing for carbon commodities ($1-7).
A month makes intuitive sense to people when looking at shorter units.
Shorter time scales allow for biodiversity fluctuations, and account for ongoing predation, and trafficking of rare species within the 1-year monitoring periods. It captures granular reporting for restoration integrity increases.
There are some benefits to more granular crediting in some conservation projects.
IP and LC experts working on Savimbo's indicator-species conservation methodology felt 1 year was too long to accurately reflect conservation outcomes in monitoring sites without tagged animals as a jaguar could be killed for its teeth immediately after observation in month 1 of a 12-month crediting cycle.
2 month crediting periods followed optimum hunter-gatherer tracking activities. Allowing for rest periods and scouting for indicator species, yet delivering clear signals for species that had relocated or disappeared.
Restoration projects will most likely require twenty-year commitments with minimum 5-year action crediting. This does not affect the Time unit in the slightest.
