Verra Launches Nature Framework 

Verra has launched the first version of the Nature Framework, an asset methodology under Verra’s Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard (SD VISta) Program. By enabling projects to quantify biodiversity outcomes and generate Nature Credits, the framework will incentivize widespread investment in measurable conservation and restoration activities benefiting nature and people. This is a testing version that will evolve over time based on the experiences of the initial projects.

The SD VISta Nature Framework will drive critically needed finance to biodiversity conservation activities. It will contribute to Target 19 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which calls for the mobilization of $200 billion per year for biodiversity from all sources, including through innovative schemes such as biodiversity credits with environmental safeguards.

Companies seeking to bridge this biodiversity funding gap can purchase Nature Credits to support critical nature conservation and restoration activities and their nature-positive outcomes. Buying Nature Credits will also help companies secure their nature dependencies into the future.

Nature Credits represent one percent of net biodiversity outcomes, measured in quality hectares (Qha), generated during a monitoring period as a result of the project intervention. Because biodiversity is not fungible and voluntary mechanisms are not suitable for like-for-like offsetting, voluntary nature/biodiversity credits should not be used as offsets to compensate for specific negative biodiversity impacts.

Verra’s Nature Framework acknowledges the critical role that Indigenous Peoples and local communities have in stewarding global biodiversity, and one of its central goals is to reward them for their efforts to protect and restore nature. The framework requires projects to follow a comprehensive set of social safeguards to obtain free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), establish mutually agreed benefit-sharing mechanisms, and ensure genuine stakeholder participation throughout project design and implementation.

On Wednesday, November 20, 2024, 11 am ET, Verra hosted a webinar to provide an overview of the Nature Framework.

The launch of the Nature Framework follows a robust and comprehensive consultation and piloting process (see “Development History” on the Nature Framework methodology page). Its development included a dedicated process of consulting with and learning from Indigenous Peoples. The framework also underwent an extensive piloting process during which select pilots tested the clarity, reasonableness, local appropriateness, scalability, and usability of the draft version.

Implementation, Continued Testing, and Development: As a next step, existing pilot projects meeting the requirements of the Nature Framework, v1.0 will be eligible to submit their project documents to Verra starting April 1, 2025, and may start generating Nature Credits. These initial projects will contribute their experiences to refining the methodology. While the framework’s requirements are based on existing best practices and recent scientific literature, testing these requirements with project data will be an essential next step in the further development of the framework.

Expert Panel: Verra plans to establish an expert panel to support the technical aspect of project development. Panel members will review each project description before it goes to validation, facilitating the selection of appropriate Condition indicators and crediting baselines.

Focus Areas: This testing phase will focus on further developing certain technical elements (e.g., leakage, Significance) and exploring and assessing different approaches for setting crediting baselines. Methods for setting crediting baselines for biodiversity are still in the early stages of development and rapidly evolving, specifically those regarding the collection of robust baseline data. As approaches are tested and more data becomes available, Verra will update its methodology as appropriate.

While the first version of the Nature Framework is designed to be generally applicable to all project contexts and aims, it may require further adaptation and refinement for specific biomes and/or contexts.

Nature Stewardship: In addition to the issuance of Nature Credits, Verra will continue to explore the feasibility of a nature stewardship pathway (i.e., measuring the impacts of continued maintenance of intact nature not under imminent threat). Details on Verra’s proposed path forward will be published in the weeks following the Nature Framework launch.

Continued Engagement: During the initial implementation phase of the Nature Framework, Verra aims to further build a community of practice that both enables projects to learn from each other and allows Verra to learn from each project as well as other standards/methodologies. Verra strives to help define this nascent but critically important market to ensure it embodies a set of consistent principles that all high-integrity programs meet.