Biodiversity credits must make financial sense for farmers

Dedicating land to generating biodiversity credits needs to make financial sense for farmers.

This is the view of Bionua, a company that facilitates corporate organisations and other enterprises buying biodiversity credits from farmers and landowners.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Bionua founder William Butterly said land used to generate biodiversity credits, which would then be sold to companies, needs to be as or more profitable for farmers than the enterprise that land is currently supporting.

“We wanted to treat it [generating biodiversity credits] as a crop.

“That crop, for it to be adopted substantially by a lot of landowners, would need to be as profitable or more profitable than what your cropping type is at the moment. [For example], at least be on par profit wise in giving the same returns as dairying.

Satellite imaging

“Now landowners have an opportunity to put in a different type of crop, which is climate farming, and know that they’re not going to take any drop in income,” he said.

Bionua uses satellite imaging and ground-based sensors to quantify carbon sequestration and biodiversity on lands.

The amount of biodiversity credits produced will vary depending on the land type, Butterly said.

“We could have one piece of land and it might be generating 10 biodiversity credits per acre and we could have another piece of land that might be generating six biodiversity credits per acre,” he said.

The price paid for biodiversity credits is based on how much it costs to remove a tonne of carbon from the atmosphere, which Butterly said is €150 to €200/t of carbon sequestered.

Landmark deal

Last week Bionua announced a landmark deal between Dublin-based Coffeeangel and Dunsany Estate in Co Meath.

The first of its kind in Ireland and the second in Europe, the deal will see Coffeeangel invest 5% of its profits over five years in buying biodiversity credits from rewilded land on the estate. Neither party would confirm how many credits the company would be buying.