The biodiversity commitments by most countries in Montreal in December 2021 involve the restoration of 30% of their degraded land, water and sea by 2030. Many of these ecosystems cannot be funded by carbon alone, and thanks to the development of the biodiversity credit it is now possible to monetise biodiversity uplift as well, increasing the funding feasibility of more sites. rePLANET, which was involved with the Wallacea Trust biodiversity credit working group that developed the Biodiversity Credit methodology, is now stacking both biodiversity and carbon credits to fund biodiversity uplift or avoided loss projects.
A key issue to tackle in many developing countries is the huge loss of forest on very steep areas that can result in landslides during torrential downpours and from along watercourses which leads to greater water loss and because of regular access by cattle, pollution of water supplies. In some areas the complete loss of trees has produced drier microclimates which are endangering the survival of farming. rePLANET is developing a series of projects in Costa Rica, Panama, Egypt, UK and Spain which by stacking both carbon and biodiversity credits is helping to fund the restoration of native riparian forest.
