Introducing Living Formentera: a model for the future of biodiversity funding
We are pleased to announce a new multi-partner project on the Spanish island of Formentera. Designed to explore the potential for new models for attracting private sector funding for biodiversity, “Living Formentera” is being delivered in partnership with Conservation Collective, the Nature & People Foundation, Ibiza Preservation and Mishcon Purpose.
Based on a methodology called the Urban Biodiversity Standard (UBS), which has been developed by ecologists at the University of Seville, this work is a huge opportunity to explore future ways to fund nature-based solutions at a crucial moment in how the world collectively responds to the biodiversity crisis.
A beautiful, peaceful island in a world facing a climate and nature crisis
Formentera is the smallest inhabited island in the Spanish Balearics. The peaceful sister island of its famous neighbour Ibiza, it’s a natural jewel among many well-known destinations in the Mediterranean. Yet, the island faces dramatic temperature rises and further existential challenges to its abundant natural biodiversity.
The island is not alone, with UN nations agreeing in 2022 that the world needs a trillion dollars of private investment in biodiversity by 2030. In order to reduce the worst consequences of biosphere collapse, the challenge is set, and we share the urgent task of building the tools necessary to raise the vast sums required.
An innovative, nature-based solution for a biodiverse island on a warming planet
Drawing together leading expertise from the environmental sciences, conservation, finance and economic policy, we’re developing a high-integrity global biodiversity metric underpinned by the Urban Biodiversity Standard. This will mean a new Urban Biodiversity Credit enabling private investment to flow into life-critical nature assets.
Formentera vegetation provides ecosystem services to all of us who live on and visit the island, including through cooling, water management, pollution absorption and amenity. We aim to offer the opportunity to invest in the island to improve the level of these critical services through a biodiversity credit underpinned by biodiversity.
Building a trusted biodiversity credit market responsive to both people and place
Our goal is to build a high-integrity biodiversity credits market that urgently responds to the future of island ecologies, as well as the social and economic needs and wants of local communities and visitors. In Formentera, we’re working collaboratively to enact, monitor and prove the impact these pioneering innovations can have for all.
Supporting long-term ecosystem restoration, will mean reducing island temperatures and water scarcity, sinking carbon, increasing wildlife, and cleaning the air, as well as improving human health and wellbeing. It will also ensure Formentera is an increasingly sustainable destination, with people and the planet reciprocally rewarded.
Following the participatory workshops that the Living Formentera Project has carried out since early this year on the island, we launched now a survey in which we try to reflect some of the concerns and opportunities for improvement identified. Now we seek to make a joint diagnosis with the rest of the citizens and social partners of the island. So if you are a resident of Formentera we would like to know your opinion. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey. Your answers will help us identify areas in which to work to improve the environmental, economic and social state of Formentera.
To learn more, please get in touch directly or join our newsletter for regular updates, including opportunities to engage with this work locally, in Formentera and Ibiza, and globally wherever you are.