Nature as Capital: Developing a Business Plan for a Biodiversity Credit Trading Platform | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) Partnership as the Foundation of a Science-Backed Marketplace

Despite extinction being a natural process, Earth is experiencing biodiversity loss caused by humans up to 1000 times the natural background rate of one to five species per year, with profound ecological and economic implications. More than half of global GDP depends on nature’s services, and while policy frameworks are the primary response, the global biodiversity financing gap of $598–824 billion annually cannot be filled by public and philanthropic funds alone. Hence, a new market-based mechanism is required to mobilize private capital. Inspired by carbon credits, biodiversity credits are emerging as a tool to finance measurable ecosystem improvements, that can be verified and traded. Yet, both regulatory and voluntary biodiversity credit markets are in a nascent and highly fragmented stage. Against this backdrop, this thesis asks: how can a voluntary biodiversity credit marketplace be designed to be scientifically credible, aligned with European policy frameworks, and expressed through a viable business model? To answer this question, ecological theory, EU policy analysis, and entrepreneurial strategy build up to the design of Verdità, the first biodiversity credit marketplace leveraging blockchain tokenization and backed by the main Italian public research institution. Before turning to the business plan of Verdità in Chapter 3, Chapter 1 introduces biodiversity as a global public good, its ecological dimensions, governance frameworks, and ethical considerations, while Chapter 2 reviews market-based conservation mechanisms, the evolution from carbon credits to biodiversity credits and the state of the voluntary biodiversity credit market. The conclusion synthesizes findings, limitations, and outlines future perspectives.