One of the things that makes living carbon offsets so attractive is that it helps preserve biodiversity. They are "gourmet" or "boutique" because of this added value. Steve sent me this email with a link to the Malua Wildlife Habitat Conservation Bank, which sells conservation certificates for rainforest in Sabah. The idea is to conserve orangutan habitat. According to the site and this press release, they're selling off the forest in 100m2 chunks. There are 100 of these chunks in a hectare...even at a minimal price this makes Ajay's idea of separating the biodiversity from ecosystem services (carbon sequestration) sound appealing. And profitable.
This is an interesting new model for biodiversity markets launched by New Forests and partners today. They are issuing ‘biodiversity conservation certificates’ that represent 100 square metres of rainforest conservation and protection – a sort of share in a 50 year conservation project on a 34,000 ha concession from the Sabah Govt. I have talked to them about the potential for using CCB Standards (delinked from the carbon quantification) to provide some sort of independent validation of the multiple benefits of the project although this needs further thought. I am glad to see they have made it clear that these certificates can not be considered as any kind of biodiversity offset which was a concern raised by BBOP.
http://www.maluabiobank.com/
