Biodiversity certificates: start of work!
Over 200 people attended the event on 28 November 2023 to launch the scientific programme for biodiversity certificates.
This programme, which is backed by OBC members, aims to develop a methodology for evaluating the advantages of corporate actions that contribute to biodiversity.
Paris, 29 November 2023 – The research programme led by the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN), the Fondation pour la recherche sur la biodiversité and Carbone 4 was launched on 28 November, in the presence of Sylvie Goulard, Co-Chair of the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits, MNHN President Gilles Bloch, Carbone 4 President Jean-Marc Jancovici, and Fabiola Flex, President of OBC.
This programme, supported by OBC members – Pernod Ricard, Kering and Fransylva – as well as the Lemarchand Foundation, has a clear objective: to produce a methodology for assessing the biodiversity benefits of actions carried out or financed by companies to promote biodiversity – for example, « planting a hedge of a defined type with this variety of species » in a field in a temperate environment. The research will be primarily led in the « temperate agriculture » and « temperate forest » ecosystems – knowing that the “tropical forest” will follow, as a prelude to a wider extension. « This approach to assessing the impact of actions taken is innovative, as it is far removed from traditional approaches based on counting species », explains Romain Julliard, professor of ecology at the MNHN. It is also particularly well suited to the needs of companies. « It will make it possible to distinguish the good performers from the less good, and to respond more easily to the internal and external reporting requirements of private and public players in the field of biodiversity », adds Fabiola Flex.
The growing number of OBC members is proof of this interest: launched in October 2022, the association now has around twenty members of all sizes, the latest being Kering, Gold Standard and Ardian. Many of them are keen to test the hypotheses made by the consortium in their projects, thereby contributing to its work. Beyond that, OBC’s mission is to define the market mechanisms that will enable the emergence of a complete value chain and transactions in quality biodiversity certificates, » explains Fabiola Flex. Here too, work has begun and the association plans to publish its positioning in a year’s time. The next step will be to develop and enrich the methodology so that it can be used to create standards and be deployed in as many ecosystems around the world as possible ».
Click here to watch the event.
