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Funding grassland conservation in Transylvania using Voluntary Biodiversity Credit

Project Leader

A pioneering biodiversity credit initiative in Transylvania’s Târnava Mare region, designed to support small-scale farmers through funding for environmentally friendly land management. By generating and selling biodiversity credits to companies striving to achieve Nature Positive targets, the initiative establishes a sustainable, long-term financial model that provides more reliable income than the diminishing and uncertain government and EU subsidies.

Funded by
Private sector (through biodiversity credit purchases), and LIFE Programme (via related projects)

Project Duration
2022 - 2047 (25 years of farmer payment commitment)

Project Objectives

BACKGROUND

The High Nature Value grasslands of Târnava Mare are under threat of arable conversion because continued declines in farming subsidies are forcing landowners to adopt high-intensity agricultural practices and sell their land to large agrifood companies. It is clear that public funding is insufficient to protect this unique and charismatic biodiversity reservoir therefore the time has come to explore how the private sector could foot the bill. Can Voluntary Biodiversity Credits be used to save Transylvania’s grasslands?

This project is one of the first biodiversity credit funded initiatives in the world. It will generate biodiversity credits to be sold to private sector organisations who are under pressure to meet their Nature Positive targets. Funding generated through the sale of credits will be used to create a sustainable funding model that rewards small-scale farmers for continuing to use low-intensity nature-friendly land management practices in the Târnava Mare region of Transylvania. Biodiversity credit funded projects have a minimum length of 25 years, therefore this approach provides farmers with medium-to-long-term stability rather than relying on unreliable and changeable government and EU subsidies that have been continuing to decline over recent years and decades.

PROJECT GOAL

- To protect and enhance the biodiversity of Transylvania’s HNV grasslands through the establishment of a biodiversity credit funded results-based payment scheme that rewards farmers for maintaining low-intensity and nature-friendly land management practices.

CORE OBJECTIVE:

- To generate sufficient avoided loss biodiversity credits across Târnava Mare to establish a sufficiently incentivising results-based payment scheme that encourages small-scale farmers to continue using nature-friendly farming practices to ameliorate the threat of agricultural expansion throughout the region.

ADDITIONAL OBJECTIVES

- To integrate local communities into project design and biodiversity data collection.
- To adopt innovative approaches to habitat mapping and biodiversity monitoring that maintain data integrity and verifiability across a large landscape-scale.
- To strengthen rural economies through market-based incentives for nature conservation.
- To align biodiversity credit implementation with globally recognized principles such as additionality, permanence, measurability, and transparency.
- To be among the first projects globally to demonstrate how biodiversity credits and private sector funding can be used to protect and restore threatened landscapes at scale.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES

A functioning, privately funded biodiversity credit scheme, based on scientifically verified biodiversity uplift or avoided loss;
25-year land management agreements with local farmers;
Restoration and avoided loss of key habitats (meadows, pastures, wood pastures);
Strengthened capacity among conservationists and farmers for biodiversity stewardship;
Enhanced local engagement and awareness through citizen science tools;
Market support for biodiversity-linked products (milk, cheese, etc.).

EXPECTED RESULTS IN ROMANIA

Protection of 33,000+ ha of HNV grasslands in the Târnava Mare region;
Annual biodiversity monitoring across six key indicators (Breeding birds, herpetofauna, plants, butterflies, aboveground arthropods, soil inverts);
Socio-economic revitalization through better product pricing and eco-tourism
Improved policy alignment for biodiversity-friendly farming
Measurable reduction in habitat degradation and species decline

Project Contacts

Nat Page

President

UK Tel: 0044 (0)1747 830834
UK Mob: 0044 (0)771 2828216
RO Mob: 0040 (0)744 966239

npage@copac.org.uk

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GET INVOLVED

Donate or support us to help protect Transylvania's nature, landscapes and communities, that are under threat

ADEPT is seeking further funding to protect the High Nature Value Farmed Landscapes of Transylvania, working with and supporting the small-scale farming communities that created them over the centuries.

They are under threat because of lack of social incentives and poor agricultural management.

Help us continue our work!