Launch of a Pilot Project on Local Biodiversity Contributions

This Thursday, February 12, Carbone 4 is proud to announce the launch of a pilot project, as part of a scientific consortium, with the National Museum of Natural History and the Foundation for Biodiversity Research, united by a common goal: to organize the financing of collective action to promote biodiversity.

This pilot project stems from a research project centered on an original proposal: a model for territorial contribution, focused on collective strategies validated by science and by local stakeholders (public authorities and natural area managers).

Several stakeholders are involved in these robust regional strategies: project leaders who define conservation initiatives but often lack the resources to implement them; companies with biodiversity strategies that wish to fund projects aligned with their goals, as close as possible to their value chains, and with a major challenge: being able to demonstrate a net gain in biodiversity associated with the projects they support.

Our proposal aims to balance supply and demand through the implementation of a biodiversity certification system.

This pilot project involves testing the proposed conceptual framework against real-world conditions in order to formulate robust and actionable recommendations for implementation (governance, operational implementation protocols, standards for supply and demand, market rules, and methods for measuring biodiversity gains).

It is organized into three main phases, spread out over 18 months:

1. A preparatory phase (scope definition, literature review, stakeholder consultation)
2. A development and testing phase (design and drafting of the operational framework; field tests at selected sites)
3. A dissemination phase (during which future participants in this program will familiarize themselves with and adopt it)

He will focus on two socio-ecosystems* and study areas: wetland habitats in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and grazing pastures in Grand-Est.

This project will draw in particular on the Puzzling Biodiversity method—also developed by the consortium—to propose recommendations for methods to measure biodiversity gains.

Carbone 4, through its Nature & Biodiversity Division, is launching this pioneering project with great enthusiasm and would like to thank all of its partners (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, Grand Est Region, BP Aura, Crédit Mutuel AURA, KS Group).

* A socio-ecosystem is a natural space that interacts with human societies through the ways we use it.