News Published: 18 October 2024

Over 100 NGOs, academics, and private sector organisations worldwide have pledged their support to The Global Biodiversity Standard (TGBS), a certification scheme that provides independent verification that nature-based solutions are achieving their intended goals: protecting, enhancing, and restoring biodiversity.

The Standard, which is expected to issue its first certificates at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in October, has been developed by a coalition of global experts to support the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted at COP15.

“For years, we have watched as well-intended nature-based solutions have failed to effectively restore our declining ecosystems. This standard will change that. It has the backing of hundreds of global experts, including from countries that are facing significant biodiversity loss – like Kenya and Madagascar. It provides a hope that nature-based schemes can be a solution to the biodiversity crisis. That we can reverse the decline and restore our natural world.” – Paul Smith, Secretary General, BGCI.

It is the culmination of decades of research, several years of testing on over 120 sites, and engagement with hundreds of biodiversity scientists across 6 continents.

1 in 3 tree species are at risk of extinction.[1]

However, many nature-based solutions to date, such as tree planting, have not only failed to integrate at-risk species but often do not record their impact at all. Indeed, 90% of the worlds largest corporations, that undertake ecosystem restoration, fail to report a single ecological outcome and 0% quantify social or economic impacts on local stakeholders or traditional owners.[2]

“IUCN welcomes TGBS as a tool to asses the impacts of tree planting and other nature-based initiatives on biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, providing assurance to financiers and policymakers, as well as assistance to practitioners.” – Dr Grethel Aguilar, Director General, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

The open letter, which is signed by NGOs and universities, including Wildlife Conservation Trust and the University of Sao Paulo, voices a collective concern about the state of biodiversity and outlines the potential of TGBS as a solution to reversing biodiversity loss.

“Biodiversity is one of the most important outcomes of land management projects, but also one of the most challenging to assess thoroughly. TGBS plays an unprecedented contribution to the sector for establishing a comprehensive, standardized, and science-based set of standards for monitoring, which will shed light on the real impacts of restoration on biodiversity.” – Prof. Pedro Brancalion, Professor of Tropical Forestry at the University of Sao Paulo, and vice-coordinator of the Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact. 

[1] State of the World’s Trees report

[2] Timothy, Barlow, J., Bebbington, J., Cuckston, T., Rili Djohani, Garrett, R.D., Jones, H.P., Razak, T.B. and Nicholas (2023). Hold big business to task on ecosystem restoration. Science, 381(6662), pp.1053–1055. doi:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adh2610.