Co-developed by Associação Sociocultural Yawanawá and their Technical Partner Wildlife Works along with Forest Trends
Read the official BDSU announcement here
Blog Contents:
Introduction
Amidst the current biodiversity crisis, species are going extinct thousands of times faster than the natural rate. Research consistently shows that land stewarded by Indigenous Peoples maintains higher levels of biodiversity, thanks to their generational knowledge, cultural practices, and values. To sustain these positive biodiversity outcomes and associated ecosystem services, action must be taken to fund Indigenous Peoples’ continued stewardship of their lands.
While market-based mechanisms, such as REDD+, have created unprecedented levels of finance for Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and Forest Communities protecting threatened and degraded ecosystems, existing market-based finance for biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation does not incentivize the protection of intact ecosystems. Indigenous Peoples and Forest Communities who continue to maintain intact forests and their ecosystem services deserve a different market mechanism, guided by their values and cultural practices. BDSUs acknowledge the value of intact ecosystems and create a benchmark of ecological integrity needed to guide and inspire restoration efforts.
The BDSU Methodology was co-designed by the Associação Sociocultural Yawanawá (ASCY), Wildlife Works and Forest Trends to respect Indigenous knowledge, spiritual and cultural values, along with practices like language and traditional events as vital to maintaining the observed levels of biodiversity intactness. BDSUs will drive funding directly to Indigenous Peoples and Forest Communities who have successfully maintained highly intact ecosystems and biodiversity richness in the face of constant threat.
With a 700 billion dollar finance gap in achieving international conservation goals by 2030, BDSUs also offer a way for corporations to invest in a positive future for nature, simultaneously supporting several key goals and targets set by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Contributions to Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework:
Target 3: conserve and effectively manage at least 30 percent of terrestrial land by 2030, while with recognizing Indigenous and traditional territories
Target 9: protect and encourage customary sustainable use of biodiversity by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities
Target 19: encourage the private sector to invest in biodiversity
Target 20: strengthen capacity-building for biodiversity monitoring
A true process of co-creation:
Over the past two years and through 60+ consultative and participatory cross-learning meetings and workshops, the Associação Sociocultural Yawanawá (ASCY), Wildlife Works and Forest Trends have co-created this BDSU methodology. As the intellectual property rights owner of the BDSU methodology, ASCY was integral to designing this methodology from conceptualization to testing the proposed approach, designing equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms, providing the necessary governance and ensuring that the methodology respects cultural values and traditional knowledge. The underlying rationale is that persistence of indigenous knowledge, spiritual and cultural values, along with practices like language, traditional events are vital to maintaining the observed levels of biodiversity intactness.
Specific partner roles:
Wildlife Works originated the concept and provided methodological, scientific and financial input.
Associação Sociocultural Yawanawá provided indigenous knowledge and perspective, plus permission to pilot the idea in their territory.
Forest Trends introduced the core partners, provided critical linkages including government, historical contextualization, enabling support and other steering counsel.
Core Principles of the Biodiversity Stewardship Units (BDSU) Methodology:
This methodology will create third-party verified Biodiversity Stewardship Units.
The BDSU methodology presents an approach to measure biodiversity intactness of an area based on measures of species richness. Measurements are then used to develop a score for biodiversity intactness. This and the size of the forest together determine the number of Biodiversity Stewardship Units (BDSUs) a project can issue. Communities can then sell BDSUs to earn revenue for conserving biodiversity and the important ecosystem services they provide.
In addition to international good practices related to social safeguards and Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes, the following core principles and operational criteria are built into this methodology to uphold ownership, guarantee fair access to benefits and meaningful involvement of IPs and Forest Communities:
Eligibility: Only IPs and Forest Communities qualify for use of the methodology in the first instance, but consultations are allowed to determine how local, regional and/or national governments can participate
Due diligence: A clear due diligence process is vital to ensure the rightful long-term stewards of the lands are the ones being credited for its condition and provided the rights to the benefits accrued, whether they hold legal title to the land or not.
FPIC: Full Free, Prior and Informed Consent shall be required to ensure broad and meaningful engagement, participation and acceptance by community members, and must be developed with the proponents and respectful of their traditional structures and decision-making processes.
Equitable distribution of benefits with income retained locally: a clear and transparent governance structure shall be established by the community stewards, aligned with their customary systems, to ensure equitable and just distribution of benefits across all community members and groups. Most of the revenues from the sale of BDSUs must be to the benefit of the land and biodiversity steward community(ies) permanently living within or near the target area.
Additionality and offsetting: The ultimate goal of this methodology is valuing intact biodiversity and associated ecosystem services that exist within Indigenous and community owned lands because they have defended their territorial rights. Therefore, this methodology will not require additional actions or net gains in biodiversity outcomes over time, nor can these units be used as offsets.
Key Technical Features of the Biodiversity Stewardship Units (BDSU) Methodology:
Project Eligibility
For new projects, the target forest site must not have lost more than 6.6% of its forest area over the 30 years prior to the proposed project start date. For ongoing projects, participating forests will be required to maintain a deforestation rate lower than 0.22% annually.
Baseline
The biodiversity baseline is a predetermined list of species expected to exist in the target area, created through extensive literature reviews, consultations with experts and local IPs and Forest Communities. This list will be provided by the accrediting Standard and includes species from five taxonomic groups (always including plants) that are forest-dependent, endemic, globally threatened, or optionally of socio-cultural importance, and excludes domesticated or extensively cultivated species.
Intactness
Biodiversity intactness, measured by species richness, will be based on a comparative analysis of current species composition against the baseline list of expected species for the target forest. For a project to be considered eligible to issue BDSUs, at least four of the five selected taxonomic groups must attain a minimum threshold of 60% intactness at each monitoring period. Likewise, the overall mean intactness for all the selected taxonomic groups combined must also be equal to or greater than 60%.
Monitoring
This methodology will require rigorous and continuous monitoring that will enable BDSUs to be recalculated based on the biodiversity inventory data for each specific monitoring period. This calls for a well-defined and replicable sampling strategy including in situ methods that provide the greatest opportunity for the community stewards in the target forest site to participate directly in data collection and biodiversity monitoring on their lands.
Quantification
Based on the final intactness score, the project shall be placed in a percentile with a corresponding BDSU multiplier on a scale of 6-10 (linked to the 60-100% intactness score range). This shall be multiplied by the total area of eligible forest (in hectares) to produce the total number of BDSUs issuable for the eligible forest area for each specific monitoring period. The mean intactness score must exceed the 60% minimum threshold for participation; being a performance-based reward mechanism, should the intactness score for a target forest drop below the minimum threshold based on sampling data, no BDSUs will be issued for that period.
The BDSU methodology is currently undergoing peer review before the formal launch of its first pilot project by the Yawanawá people in Rio Gregório, Brazil, positively impacting over 1,025 community members across 188,000 hectares of forest—an area larger than the city of Rio de Janeiro. After the launch of the pilot project, the BDSU methodology will be applied in different ecosystems and geographies of biodiversity importance in the Amazon and beyond.
