🌏 The Biodiversity Accelerator+ 2022 Cohort Company: Wilderlands
Wilderlands creates a bridge for corporates to support high quality, independently verified conservation projects, & communicate their impact transparently – starting from the cost of a cup of coffee.
TL;DR - Wilderlands is an online platform establishing a market for accessible, transparent biodiversity credits in the form of Biological Diversity Units (BDUs). Each BDU represents 1sqm of high value conservation land which will be protected, conserved, and routinely managed in perpetuity by one of their partners, and secured through government-established schemes and conservation covenants in Australia. Check out some of their existing projects here, as well as their white paper for the methodologies behind their BDUs!
When the wildfires hit Australia back in 2020, it brought worldwide attention to the extent of ecological value in Australia, and just what was at stake. Photos, not just of koalas, but of numerous animals people had never even heard of before populated the internet as people spread the news about all the species endemic to the country that were at risk of losing their homes.
Indeed, although the mention of Australia may not immediately conjure the image of rich diversity the way a place like the Amazon does, Australia really is a region of mega-diversity. With its amazing range of varied landscapes, from snowy mountains of the Australian alps, to the tropical forests of the Daintree Rainforest, from the sandstone gorges in Nitmiluk National Park to the dusty Great Deserts and the rich coral habitats in the Great Barrier Reef, over 560,000 species call the continent home. What’s more, it’s one of the most species-unique places on the planet, with over 80% of their mammal species endemic to the continent.
But even though 20% of all land in Australia is protected, it's still the only developed country that's considered a deforestation hotspot by WWF. But Australian wildlife is unfortunately not the only one under threat. Despite growing interest in sustainability, there remains a huge funding gap for conservation and biodiversity, with conservation advocates suggesting that that funding of at least US$60 billion annually is needed to avert the biodiversity crisis globally - much more than the $4 billion to $10 billion that they are estimated to be spending today.
But channeling funding into biodiversity and conservation, as it currently stands, is not quite so simple. Funders have to expend a lot of resources to find individual project managers, to do their due diligence on them, to negotiate funding contracts, and to monitor and verify the performance of those projects. And for many corporate funders with a CSR (corporate social responsibility) mandate, they have to find a way to communicate the impact of their contribution. It could take an entire team of professional to cover all of these functions well.
🏞️ Enter Wilderlands - an online marketplace for accessing biodiversity projects you can trust
Wilderlands is an Australia-based start-up that makes all the work of investing into biodiversity easy and transparent. It has has developed a nature-based credit system that enables businesses (and their customers) to directly support biodiversity through the purchase of Biological Diversity Units (BDUs), one of the world's first voluntary biological units. Each BDU represents one square metre of vulnerable land protected in perpetuity, and managed for twenty years.
How it works:
👉🏼 Wilderlands works with its partner land managers to verify and register BDUs on a third party register. These partners have committed to protecting part of their properties through government-established biodiversity credit schemes and conservation covenants. All projects need to include an independent ecological assessment of the site, a declaration of its high strategic conservation significance, and a biodiversity management plan, all validated via the Wilderlands Chief Ecologist, an appointed independent expert, a relevant Government agency, or local conservation organisation.
Wilderlands has an exclusive partnership with Cassinia Environmental, a renowned land management company with the largest covenants in the state of Victoria, with 15,000 ha of land protected (and growing), but is also continuing to build out its pipeline of projects. With its launch in August this year, Wilderlands hosted four Australian projects, but expects to build more domestic and international projects over the next few years.
👉🏼 After businesses or individual retail customers purchase BDUs through Wilderlands or Wilderlands’ network of carbon partners, they are provided with dedicated, personalized live web portals, which routinely reports data on key species, including threatened flora and fauna species, as well as indicators of habitat condition. The web portal is designed to be highly visual and intuitive, featuring georeferenced maps and beautiful photo galleries.
Wilderlands might be a new kid on the block, but their team - led by CEO Ash Knop, and CMO Heath Evans - is growing the business rapidly, with credible access to conservation project supply, where other platforms struggle to keep up with demand. The biodiversity financing space is very nascent, but we’re keeping an eye on Wilderlands as they position themselves to play a critical role in shaping it.
Want to learn more? Check out the Wilderlands website, and Linkedin and Twitter pages for more updates!