Featured by the Harvard iLabs: Bringing back the elephants

According to an estimate from the World Economic Forum, it could cost as much as $1 trillion a year to stop the current global loss of biodiversity — the variety of all living things that holds the balance of life on earth. Without it, the ecosystems responsible for everything we rely on, from the air we breathe to the food we drink, cease to exist. Yet less than an estimated $150 billion is currently spent to solve this existential crisis. Harvard Climate Circle venture EarthAcre is betting big that this will change, and doing their part to see that it does — and soon.

On September 29, EarthAcre announced an historic first in conservation funding — the sale of an option on biodiversity assets. This milestone represents a significant stride towards the conservation of biodiversity landscapes and the equitable compensation of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) for their invaluable stewardship of land.

EarthAcre is unlocking biodiversity as an underutilized asset for indigenous landowners, allowing them to sell biodiversity credits, or “biocredits.” Biocredits have the potential to accelerate funding for biodiversity conservation while benefiting local communities, say EarthAcre’s cofounders Viraj Sikand (HKS/HBS 2024) and Mark Tracy (HKS 2012). Where the carbon market currently allows corporations and investors to trade carbon credits and offsets, in a biodiversity market biocredits are created to stop and reverse actual species loss by addressing environmental threats (like permanent habitat loss) and working with local biodiversity custodians, i.e. landowners. In fact, a biocredit market would make protecting biodiversity a lucrative effort for landowners.

To read the full article, visit the Harvard innovation Labs website here.