Roadmap towards Nature Credits

In the finance toolbox for biodiversity and nature, certification and credits are emerging as a potentially valuable way to complement public funding. By facilitating investments in activities that benefit nature, these innovative and voluntary tools can play a crucial additional role in preserving the health of our land and marine ecosystems and help reverse the decline in biodiversity. With a view to strengthening the bioeconomy, these tools can also provide an opportunity to generate income to the people involved in the protection, restoration, and sustainable management of ecosystems, as highlighted in the Vision for Agriculture and Food, the Water Resilience Strategy4, and the European Ocean Pact5, while ensuring food security and the multifunctionality of forests.
This roadmap sets out a path to achieving these goals. The aim is to complement different sources of nature finance such as public funding by supporting the development of highintegrity tools – nature credits – that will turn investment in nature into a reliable engine of value creation.