Interview Summary:
In this interview, Simon Morgan, Science Lead at CreditNature, outlines the organisation’s ambitious goal to rewild half the planet by 2050. CreditNature supports landowners in restoring degraded landscapes using its Ecosystem Condition Index, a certified framework that measures ecosystem improvements and generates verified nature credits for corporate reporting.
Morgan highlights Africa’s major potential for high-integrity biodiversity credit markets, given its rich ecosystems and engaged communities. Key challenges include building corporate demand, clarifying credit claims and securing early-stage project finance. He emphasises collaboration across the supply chain and sees events like AGES as vital for advancing credible, large-scale nature restoration efforts.
Hi everyone, my name’s Simon Morgan. I am the science lead and head of international projects at CreditNature. Our goal is to see half of the planet rewilded by 2050—quite an ambitious goal, but we feel like we’ve got the right tools and mechanisms to get us there.
We essentially are assisting landowners with the restoration of their landscapes and providing them with the metrics to be able to quantify and measure those improvements of their landscapes. We do this using a framework that we’ve developed, called the Ecosystem Condition Index, which essentially allows us to measure on a point-by-point improvement of an area.
If you think of a starting point, it could be a field that you’re looking to recover and rewild and restore. It could be a degraded landscape from heavy grazing or something like that. And essentially, we’re looking at the condition of that system. And the reason why we’re looking at the ecosystem condition is that that’s the highest order of measurement that we can go to. So if you think of the global biodiversity framework, where nations have signed up to the quite ambitious 30 × 30 goals of restoring and protecting 30% of the world’s natural landscapes by 2030, we are wanting to speak to that and to be able to measure against those goals, which are at that highest order at an ecosystem level.
So, we assist with the measurements and the recording and the verification as well as a certification. So our ecosystem condition index is certified by a third party by accounting for nature. We fall under the accounting for nature standard. And that certification allows us to essentially deliver those point improvements in the condition of the system as nature credits. And those nature credits could then be available for sale. And we are working closely with corporates thinking about how they can purchase those credits and use them for their reporting.
So, in many parts of the world, if you look at the EU, for example, there’s corporate social responsibilities and reporting on nature. So what are your impacts, but also importantly, what are your dependencies on nature? And trying to give some sense of what are you doing about that? And so that’s where the nature credits come in. A purchase of a nature credit showcases the impact that’s happened and allows them to report on that impact and to showcase it against their goals and their ambitions as a corporate.
When we look at the African continent and think about its role that it plays in the development of high-integrity biodiversity credit markets, we can see that there’s a clear opportunity. If you look globally, where is biodiversity? Where is it sitting? Where does it remain? Where is it in good condition? Where do we still have opportunity to protect as well as what scales of restoration can we look at? And Africa sits squarely in the middle of all of that. And there’s huge opportunity for the development of projects.
We’ve got very engaged communities and groups living within these landscapes that just need the support, that’s largely financial support, the considerations around what those opportunity threats might be and ensuring that they’re provided with the right tools to be able to think about restoring landscapes at scale as well as protecting those landscapes at scale.
I think in the past, if we look at what high-integrity means, I think,the by and large, we’ve been falling short from nature-based solutions and providing high-integrity nature markets. But there’s been a lot of work done over the last couple of years in driving towards that, for example, the Biodiversity Credits Alliance, IABB as well as World Economic Forum got together to develop the high-level principles. And a lot of that was designed with thinking around indigenous people in local communities and how they can fairly participate as well as get the right benefits through these nature markets. And so I think we’re well positioned to be able to roll out at scale, both the restoration and the protection of nature.
Working in a system that’s constantly evolving and changing is tricky, especially when we’re working in a nascent market. I think we’ve done a lot of work on the principles of engagements, what high-integrity looks like. But I think that there’s still quite a lot of work to be done on the demand side of biodiversity and nature credits. So what are these credits going to be used for? How do you report on them? What do they represent? There’s a large offset market that’s already been created that’s regulated at a national level. What we’re looking at is largely a voluntary contributions towards nature. And so a lot of the corporates that we’re engaging with are, some of them are still wrapping their heads around the carbon markets and thinking about how we bring nature into that picture is quite a tall ask for many to wrap their heads around. But I think the structures are being put in place for them to be able to effectively understand what those claims are that they can make around these investments, as well as by going through the process of understanding what your dependencies are on nature.
It gives you a sense of what you potentially might be able to do about it and understand where your risks lie from a nature perspective. And I think that that’s where there’s been a bit of an awakening in the market, especially with climate change coming and entities realizing the risks that they face from their dependencies on nature. So this really gives them the opportunity to invest along those supply chains and value chains and to sure up those risks as much as possible.
So the challenges there really are around ensuring that there are adequate high-integrity claims that can be made against these impacts that are being created through the projects. I think the other component that is quite challenging is just the consideration around the bridging finance that’s required to get a project investor-ready. There’s a lot of interest from the investor community around and creating these opportunities and generating revenue through the sale of credits. so getting that viable return, but just getting a project scoped out and specced and over that initial hurdle getting into an investor-ready format is a
challenging process. So getting adequate funding available for that is problematic. But we are starting to see the investor community coming to the fore on that, grant funding that comes into it as well. So slowly we’re starting to see that these solutions are being identified and deployed.
It’s going to be quite an exciting panel, because we’ve got a nice diversity across the supply chain of biodiversity credits being represented from the supplier all the way through to the demand side elements. Key components of the discussions are going to be around those demand elements and the claims and what is the value add for corporates in purchasing credits? What can they be used for?
So I’m quite excited to be sitting and having these discussions. I think the opportunity and the forum and the ability for engagement through the workshop is going to be exciting as well. I think there’s going to be good representation in listening in as well. So I’m looking forward to that engagement and trying to get to the bottom of this demand conundrum that we have at the moment and trying to really drive those demand elements and push them along.
A summit like AGES is critical for the continent, bringing people in and seeing firsthand. It’s always an eye-opener I think internationally, getting awareness around nature-based solutions and opportunities. And as I mentioned earlier, just the biodiversity that’s present on the continent and what we’ve got to offer.
The willingness of the people, I think is key. And so bringing people in and actually showcasing that firsthand is critical. And around any of these types of events, you always have people traveling and being able to meet local actors and really understanding the appetite for what’s possible. So, yes, I think these kinds of events are critical and hosting them on site and in view of what we’re trying to protect is important.
I think a last point to add is really around engagement and discussions. A biodiversity credit market, any nature market, requires so many different actors along the chain, right from the supply side all the way through to the demand, the national regulators and the like. So a key component is really trying to bring people together as often as possible to work through the whole supply chain, and to understand where the opportunities are, where are the threats, and then to really drive that integrity component which has come up. And I think for these nature markets this is critical. But we have to have the conversations and we have to be having them with everybody along the chain. And it can’t be a top down process as much as it can’t be a bottom up process only. It’s got to come from everyone.
So I’m looking forward to the discussions, looking forward to meeting people there and discussing nature markets more broadly, as well as nature credits and what’s on offer, and trying to work through some of the issues that we face and those challenges in the short term with the hope that in the medium to long term, we’ve got a solution that is really driving finance down onto the ground and seeing us restore these critical areas at scale as well as stopping the loss and protecting and conserving landscapes at scale as well. Thank you.
Contact Us
VUKA is the trusted media partner to key professionals, policy makers, suppliers and
manufacturers. We provide unparalleled opportunities for industry-wide connection.
