Plan Vivo’s pioneering, high-integrity biodiversity Standard, is now live and set to deliver a step change in impact for nature, climate and communities. 

Plan Vivo Foundation, architects of the longest-running Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) Standard, today announces the operational launch of our pioneering biodiversity Standard, PV Nature, which is now live and open to new project applications.

With over 25 years’ experience certifying community-led nature based projects across the world, PV Nature will be fully aligned with the high-integrity principles developed by Plan Vivo, Fauna and Flora and Carbon Tanzania - ensuring holistic impact (for nature, climate and communities), a participatory approach, transparent and equitable benefit sharing for communities. 

"PV Nature is an important opportunity to scale-up funding towards conservation and restoration of biodiversity, by enabling communities and mobilising resources, it offers a real potential to make change on the ground to nature and livelihoods, " noted Toral Shah, Plan Vivo's Biodiversity Coordinator. 

PV Nature has been developed over the last 24 months based on inputs from multiple key partners, as well as guidance from two targeted working groups and feedback from two public consultations. During this time, we have also been testing the practical application of the Standard with several pilot projects.

PV Nature has multiple pilot projects, including the Wild Elephant Forest project located in Zimbabwe, operated by Wild is Life. Credit: Donal Boyd / Wild is Life

Plan Vivo and Pivotal (a biodiversity data and analytics company founded to measure biodiversity at scale) have been working together to co-design the PV Nature Methodology, which places a premium on high-integrity, auditable data and evidence-based biodiversity outcomes. Demand for the new biodiversity certificates is expected to be high and to kick-start a market that will help close the funding gap for nature, estimated to be as much as USD$834bn per year. 

Using multiple biodiversity metrics the PV Nature Methodology approach is founded on % change per hectare per year as a unit and can be applied to both restoration and conservation projects, for terrestrial and marine environments. The new approach is based on key ecosystem attributes, including species-level data across a range of taxonomic groups that are relevant to the project area, to calculate a multimetric value. Percentage change in the multimetric per hectare per year forms the unit change that underpins the quantification methodology.

Zoe Balmforth, Co-Founder of Pivotal said: “We’re excited to have supported Plan Vivo to bring to market high-integrity biodiversity certificates based on real, measurable gains in biodiversity. Certificates created under this methodology represent an important step in closing the nature finance gap. With COP28 underway, it is crucial we expand our focus beyond carbon emissions and include efforts to protect and restore nature. Biodiversity certificates are a critical tool to doing so, helping us to create economies that breathe life back into the planet.''

 The Solent Seascape Project, the first nature-based solutions and seascape scale recovery restoration project of its kind in the UK, is another listed PV Nature pilot project. Credit: Shaun Roster / Blue Marine Foundation

Certified projects will generate Plan Vivo Biodiversity Certificates (PVBCs). Unlike the VCM, these certificates are not targeted at an offset approach. Rather, in line with the Nature Positive movement, they are aimed at positively incentivising landowners and communities to conserve and restore important habitats across the world that are critical for biodiversity and people to thrive.

These certificates will allow purchasers to rapidly align with or support the targets and goals of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), the Sustainable Development Goals, and emerging frameworks such as the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

“The operational launch of PV Nature heralds an exciting new chapter for Plan Vivo and a huge step forward for Nature markets. The emerging biodiversity market represents a significant opportunity to increase much-needed finance for biodiversity conservation,'' Keith Bohannon, Plan Vivo's CEO highlighted. ''PV Nature offers a new live instrument that enables projects to take a high integrity approach to generate biodiversity certificates that represent real, evidence-based biodiversity outcomes. At the same time, we have made sure that PV Nature holds true to the core values of Plan Vivo in term of community engagement, fair and equitable benefit sharing and holistic impact.”

For more information on PV Nature, please watch the PV Nature Launch Webinar and review the relevant PV Nature Documentation.

Any questions or queries can be emailed to:  [email protected].

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Plan Vivo would like to thank all our partners and collaborators for their hard work, dedication and commitment to PV Nature.