Nature credits as a strategic instrument for a nature‑positive transformation

In July 2025, the European Commission presented a roadmap for the development of so‑called nature credits. It provides a policy framework designed to strengthen private‑sector engagement in nature‑positive activities within the European Union.

Nature credits refer to investments in clearly defined measures that contribute to the protection, restoration, or sustainable management of natural ecosystems. Usually, a farmer or landowner makes a plot of land available that is suitable for biodiversity-enhancing measures. These measures may include converting to mixed cropping systems, planting flower strips or establishing agroforestry systems. Companies then have the opportunity to participate as investors by providing financial support for activities such as planting, maintenance, and ongoing monitoring. The ecological impact of these measures is verified against predefined criteria by independent bodies. The resulting credits enable investors to contribute to biodiversity objectives while mitigating nature-related risks within their own economic context.

The planned development of nature credits underscores the growing relevance of nature‑related factors for companies. In this context, biodiversity encompasses far more than just the environmental dimension. When embedded conceptually in the right way, it enhances corporate resilience, innovation capacity and reputation. Biodiversity strategies enable companies to systematically integrate the protection, restoration and sustainable use of biological diversity into all relevant business areas.

Nature credits are currently regarded as an innovative, market‑based approach to directing private investment toward nature‑positive measures and thereby supporting biodiversity‑related objectives. The overarching aim is to mobilize private capital to close existing financing gaps in the implementation of the European Union’s environmental and climate goals. In this context, the Commission’s roadmap highlights the importance of harmonized methodologies, transparent verification processes and clear governance structures in order to ensure credibility and minimize the risk of greenwashing.

For companies, nature credits offer an opportunity to embed biodiversity considerations more strategically into their sustainability architecture. Particularly relevant may be the purchase of credits generated in regions or ecosystems connected to a company’s own value chain, as ecological impacts can then be more closely aligned with company‑specific risk exposures. This requires that the underlying measures be designed to be measurable, verifiable and outcome‑oriented.

However, there are currently no concrete further developments or binding timelines for establishing a unified nature credit market at the EU level. Through the Green Assist initiative, the European Union supports initial practical testing through pilot projects intended to trial methodological standards and gather experience with the practical implementation of nature credit models. There is still no single standard for measuring biodiversity, though a variety of mainly Excel‑based tools already exist that allow companies or project developers to systematically assess their impacts on biodiversity. One example is the biodiversity metric developed by the UK government, which assesses interventions in habitats based on clearly defined criteria — such as type, condition, size or significance of the habitat — and calculates binding offset units that, like emissions trading, must be balanced through compensatory measures or the purchase of corresponding units.

Internationally, there is likewise a wide range of free online tools that capture biodiversity impacts and dependencies on ecosystem services and evaluate them comparatively based on defined criteria. For example, ENCORE supports companies and financial institutions in systematically analyzing nature‑related dependencies and impacts by categorizing around 88 sectors according to their biodiversity risk across five rating levels, thereby providing an initial quantifiable assessment basis. The WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter follows a similar approach, analyzing operational activities and supply chains with regard to biodiversity‑related risks and complementing this assessment with spatially explicit maps on the local importance and integrity of biodiversity. A more comprehensive approach is taken by the Biodiversity Impact Assessment Tool (BIAT), which quantifies biodiversity impacts across business activities and supply chains using a life‑cycle methodology and, through internal and external benchmarks, makes regional and sector‑specific differences visible.

With increasing awareness and evolving markets, it is expected that internationally recognized guidelines on nature strategies for companies and financial institutions will place a stronger focus on nature credits and gradually integrate them into regulatory reporting instruments. Companies and financial institutions can play a key role in the emerging nature credit system. They finance nature-positive projects, support the development of the necessary market infrastructure, and conduct due diligence to ensure transparency and integrity. Both groups can also purchase nature credits themselves to pursue their own biodiversity goals and better manage nature-related risks. In doing so, they contribute significantly to mobilizing private capital and establishing a credible market for nature credits. When used responsibly, nature credits can also have positive impacts beyond an organization's direct activities and become an integral part of a comprehensive nature and biodiversity strategy.