Market mechanisms as drivers of capacity building and technology transfer: Synergies between climate change and biodiversity

Abstract

SummaryIn many countries, lack of awareness, capacity and technology availability are among the strongest constraints to maintain or enhance biodiversity levels. From the activities being developed under the Climate Change convention we can observe that the introduction of a market mechanism accelerates the process of Capacity Building and Technology Transfer through greater bottom-up demand and more top-down funding. A similar market mechanism for Biodiversity could greatly increase finance streams to projects and to Capacity Building and Technology Transfer. However, despite several early attempts to market biodiversity in one form or other, it is clear that a real market mechanism does not yet exist. There are some serious constraints to its development, among which the lack of international legal frameworks, product definition and property rights are but a few, and it will take much time and effort to overcome these. In the meantime, there is a synergy between Climate Change and Biodiversity markets that deserves to be developed further. Many Climate Change mitigation activities, particularly in the forestry sector, show additional biodiversity benefits, and in some cases buyers of forestry ‘carbon credits’ may be prepared to pay extra for this added value. This interrelationship provides the opportunity to let the existing Climate Change market function as a booster for Biodiversity Capacity Building and Technology Transfer. In this paper two case studies are presented that exemplift this. One is the technology transfer of Reduced Impact Logging methodologies to SE-Asian logging companies, in the early years of the Climate Change negotiations (forest management is no longer eligible under the Kyoto Protocol’s CDM). The other is a recent project in Colombia that seeks to sell ‘environmental shares’ in combination with carbon credits.