Fair-trade biodiversity credits

Black jaguar from the Cofan in Ecuador.

#jhonysjaguar

Our biodiversity credits are designed to provide an immediate conservation economy to smallfarmers and Indigenous groups guarding primary forest with intact populations of rare or endangered animals.

Each credit represents one hectare, of 100% conserved biodiversity in a biodiversity hotspot for one month with photo or video evidence. (Yes, you will get the videos. Yes, they are super awesome. Yes, this is the coolest thing ever.)

very rare jungle dog

A coy look at Fernando’s uber-cool (but unpatentable) bush dogs!

Methodology

All our biodiversity credits are calculated from indicator species.

Indicator species biodiversity credits

Unit

Biodiversity credits are a frontier market. Savimbo is taking a leadership role in defining a unit.

biodiversity amazon collage

Biodiversity science

ALL THE NERDY DETAILS...

We’re really happy to report that we’ve made significant strides in creating and launching the biodiversity market. Primarily through ethical transfer of traditional ecological knowledge.

Indigenous groups are 6% of the planet’s population, guarding 80% it’s biodiversity and conserving 31% of the planet’s land.

Savimbo was formed to give them autonomy in, and access to climate markets. So we co-wrote a methodology based on their traditional activities and totemic animals — and then used complexity science and emerging technology to translate these activities for financial markets!

Our initial biodiversity methodology was certified by Cercarbono, and the first project is being tracked by Ecoregistry.

It’s being pushed to market by corporate buyers all over the globe and >18 different Indigenous groups in >4 continents and their scientific and social advocates. Early exchange adopters included Xpansiv, Dovu, Boostera, and Emsurge.

The credit uses the Savimbo unit. A cross-market negotiation that is interoperable with other types of biodiversity methodologies around the world!

Now listing on international exchanges

Our biodiversity credit was built by, Indigenous peoples, for Indigenous peoples, then translated to the global market.

We based our methodology on the grassroots activism of Jhony Lopez, and his committed group of grassroots conservationists who fought for >20 years to preserve biodiversity in their home.

A committed team of international biodiversity scientists around the globe have worked for years to bring this standard to the global market and share it open-source. It’s now being applied by local and Indigenous groups in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, Panama, Suriname, Gabon, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, The Philipines, Nepal, Cambodia, and the Bahamas for marine, jungle, and savannah ecosystems.

Biodiversity + Impact credit

We made an impact credit because of this diagram. The most biodiverse regions on Earth have inverse conservation funding, and they are controlled by Indigenous and local communities who often don’t have full land rights.

Markets that transact biodiversity, and require full land title, not only reward bad acting, they fail to pay the people who do the most for other species.

Our impact credit uses the same unit and methodology as our certified credits. All credits have full measurement, reporting, and verification. They all have full topography and multiple levels of ground-vetted attestations for land control. But they are sold by Indigenous groups and smallfarmers that are excluded from the global certification markets because of structural inequity. Either they don’t have full land title, or the land titles they do have, can’t be corrected.

In all cases, the sellers of these credits have land tenure, local bills of sale, and/or hunting rights that all parties and multiple levels of government the region attest to in writing with a notary. Our ground team speaks to all their neighbors including neighboring Indigenous leaders and validates personally there is no conflict over the land occupancy. Then they pass the same rigorous scientific validation as our certified credits. We think they deserve to be rewarded for protecting rare species. We hope you do too.

Pirinon et al. 2024, Science

2025 update: We’re working hard to find a globally respected third-party financial auditor who will validate and verify our primary data on MRV credits science, topography, and land rights. This would be a market first and we think a significant step forward for corporate purchasers who are looking for alternatives to certification.

Our biodiversity credits

Madeline's jaguar
Certified biodiversity credit

Biodiversity credit

$10

This pre-certified biodiversity credit follows all the rules. The best science, full land title, and full monitoring, reporting, and verification. Sold direct from Indigenous Peoples and local communities and listing and trading on international exchanges.

You want full credentials and results — this is your credit.

Impact credit

$6.5

This uncertified biodiversity credit breaks market rules for all the right reasons. Same, methodology, and MRV as our certified biodiversity credits. But this credit is not certifying because of unfair land rights access for Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

You want double impact, equity AND biodiversity — this is your credit.

  • “Despite only stewarding 22% of the world’s land, Indigenous territories protect 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. These lands are also estimated to contain 36% of the world’s remaining intact forests.”

    —Fitri Arianti, Rainforest Action Network using World Bank data

  • "There is never a buyer for something that doesn't exist. But there are buyers for things that are brought into existence."

    —Douglas Gayeton

  • “We advocate biodiversity for biodiversity's sake. It may take our extinction to set things straight.”

    —David Foreman

  • “Scientists were startled in 1980 by the discovery of a tremendous diversity of insects in tropical forests. In one study of just 19 trees in Panama, 80% of the 1,200 beetle species discovered were previously unknown to science... Surprisingly, scientists have a better understanding of how many stars there are in the galaxy than how many species there are on Earth.”

    —World Resources Institute

  • “The rapid loss of species we are seeing today is estimated by experts to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate.”

    —World Wildlife Fund

  • “Drug discovery from wild species has always been, and will continue to be one of the most critical for most if not all aspects of health care, disease prevention, and wellness.”

    —Neergheen-Bhujun et al., Journal of Global Health

  • “It is essential that international markets focused on biodiversity provide a means of livelihood and empowerment for indigenous peoples who have preserved their ecosystems. For this reason, biodiversity credits are a reasonable and viable way to generate non-hierarchical and decentralized employment in this population sector, which is focused on conserving and protecting forest biodiversity”

    —Fernando Ayerbe