Within the Bio-Capital project, the Italian Sustainable Investment Forum (ItaSIF) is leading Work Package 2 (WP2), dedicated to mapping and assessing financial instruments , policy directions, and investment opportunities that support biodiversity protection and restoration across the project’s five Use Cases. WP2 explores the opportunities, challenges, barriers, and enabling factors within the current policy, financing, and investment landscape for addressing biodiversity loss and strengthening ecosystem resilience.

As the final stages of Bio-Capital will activate innovative sustainable finance solutions and integrate advanced geospatial analytics technologies to mobilise private capital, it was essential to establish from the outset a shared and robust knowledge base on the context in which the project operates.

The work on building a solid knowledge base started with an overview of the EU strategies, regulations and directives, international agreements, and global standards that shape the biodiversity investment landscape. The objectives set out in EU startegies  are implemented through different types of legal acts, some binding, others voluntary, some applicable to all Member States, others only to specific countries. For this reason, gaining a clear and structured understanding of both the European and national regulatory frameworks was a crucial first step.

Beyond regulation, the analysis also includes the identification of existing investment instruments, alternative funding mechanisms, and project pipelines capable of addressing biodiversity loss and supporting ecosystem restoration.

Overall, WP2 provides the theoretical basis for the development and implementation of biodiversity-friendly financial solutions and for engaging the investment community throughout the project’s lifecycle. This baseline work is essential for achieving Bio-Capital’s final objectives for two key reasons:

1. It highlights the direct connection  between the stability of natural ecosystems and the stability of economic systems.
2. It clarifies  which tools, methodologies, and approaches are already available to integrate biodiversity considerations into financial decision-making.

Biodiversity’s Economic Value

There is a clear and growing connection between ecological and economic stability. The loss of biodiversity increases the likelihood of extreme climate-related events and threatens food and water security. Habitat destruction and species decline reduce agricultural and fisheries productivity, generating direct economic impacts across multiple sectors. In fact, more than half of the world’s GDP (around $44 trillion) is closely tied to natural resources (WEF, 2020), and entire economic sectors directly rely on ecosystem services (for example, agriculture and the food industry, textiles, tourism, construction).

From a double materiality perspective, it is essential  to assess  both the risks stemming from the loss of biodiversity and the impacts of economic activities on ecosystems. These risks can be categorised similarly to climate risks: physical risks, arising  from  ecosystem degradation and the loss of essential services and transition risks linked to  regulatory changes, market shifts, technological developments, and evolving consumer expectations). These risks, in turn, can translate into  financial risks such as credit and counterparty, operational, market, and liquidity risks. Therefore, financial institutions must carefully evaluate and manage these risks, as highlighted by the Network for Greening the Financial System (NFGS).

Translating Biodiversity Priorities into Financial Practice

Achieving a global reversal of biodiversity loss by 2030 will require annual investments between $722 and $967 billion over the next decade. Yet the biodiversity finance gap, estimated at $700 billion per year, represents the shortfall in financial resources required to effectively protect and restore nature (UNEP, 2025). At the same time, public and private financial flows associated with environmentally harmful activities amount to nearly USD 7 trillion annually (UNEP, 2023). This contrast highlights the urgency of redirecting capital away from nature-negative activities and towards investments that protect and restore ecosystems.

As both an institution and a Bio-Capital partner, ITASIF’s role is to support financial market operators in their transition towards sustainable, biodiversity-positive investments. Our work therefore centers on highlighting the tools, methodologies, and approaches already available to integrate biodiversity considerations into financial strategies and products.

These include indicators to assess issuers’ transition plans; exclusions and disinvestment from sectors, companies and countries with the most harmful biodiversity impacts; green bonds and nature bonds  to finance ecosystem conservation and restoration projects; nature-related certificates and biodiversity credits to demonstrate measurable improvements; ad-hoc insurance solutions to mitigate physical and transition risks, leveraging nature-based solutions.

Stay tuned for the next phase of the project and follow Bio-Capital for upcoming insights, tools and results.

How can biodiversity be measured, valued and financed on farms — in ways that work for farmers, policymakers and investors alike? This question was at the heart of the BIO-CAPITAL Technical Day on Biodiversity in Agriculture, held in Toulouse and organised by Agri Sud-Ouest Innovation as part of the BIO-CAPITAL Horizon Europe project.

Agri Sud-Ouest Innovation, one of the French partners in our project, regularly hosts its J-TECH event series. The last event on 4 December was devoted in detail to the topics covered by BIO-CAPITAL. The event brought together regional authorities, researchers, Earth observation experts, financial actors and practitioners for a full day of presentations, discussions and exchanges — highlighting both what already works in biodiversity remuneration, and what is still missing to scale it.

Setting the scene: BIO-CAPITAL and its objectives

The day opened with an overview of the BIO-CAPITAL project, presented by Romane Bizieau (Agri Sud-Ouest Innovation). BIO-CAPITAL aims to mobilise both public and private funding for biodiversity conservation and restoration by combining innovative financial mechanisms with satellite-based monitoring. Participants were introduced to the project’s use cases, ongoing work on biodiversity indicators, and the broader ambition to design credible frameworks for biodiversity certificates that can complement existing public instruments.

The regional context was then outlined by Natacha Racinais and Bénédicte Goffre from the Regional Biodiversity Agency (ARB) Occitanie. Their presentation highlighted the ecological pressures facing agriculture in the region — from habitat fragmentation and pesticide use to pollinator decline — alongside the diversity of public instruments already in place.

Measuring biodiversity on farms: ecology meets Earth observation

A central part of the Technical Day focused on how biodiversity can be measured at farm scale in a way that is both scientifically sound and operational. From an ecological perspective, Jean-Louis Hemptinne (ENSFEA) reminded participants that biodiversity is not simply about counting species, but about genetic diversity and ecological interactions that sustain ecosystem functioning and resilience. He emphasised the importance of landscape structure as a practical proxy for biodiversity outcomes: the share and distribution of (semi-)natural habitats, field morphology, crop rotations and agroforestry.

This ecological framing was complemented by a technical deep dive into remote sensing and indicators, presented by Harold Clenet (EarthDaily Agro) and Lisa Delvaux (UCLouvain). They demonstrated how satellite data can be used to map hedgerows, ponds, mowing frequency, bare soil and crop diversity, and how time series allow changes in practices to be tracked over time. The key message was clear: scalable biodiversity finance depends on robust proxy indicators, combining satellite data, administrative datasets and targeted field verification — rather than costly and incomplete biological inventories.

Financing biodiversity on farms: public schemes and private potential

The late-morning roundtable addressed one of the most practical questions of the day: how to finance biodiversity on farms. Romane Jubera (Agrosolutions) and Sylvie Jego (Agence de l’Eau Adour-Garonne) presented concrete examples of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) already operating at scale. These schemes remunerate farmers for biodiversity-friendly practices that go beyond legal requirements, using clearly defined indicators and transparent payment thresholds.

At the same time, Flore Bastelica (Carbone 4) discussed the emerging role of biodiversity certificates as a way to channel private finance into biodiversity outcomes. Unlike regulatory offsets, these certificates are conceived as voluntary contributions aligned with territorial strategies, designed to complement — not replace — public funding.

Farm representatives and advisers underlined the importance of economic viability, low transaction costs and simple frameworks, as well as the need to strengthen value chains that can sustain biodiversity-friendly practices beyond subsidies.

A shared takeaway from the day

Across presentations and discussions, a shared conclusion emerged: biodiversity remuneration already exists, but scaling it requires clearer frameworks, trusted measurement and stronger coordination between public and private actors.

This is precisely the space BIO-CAPITAL is working in — testing indicators, monitoring approaches and financing mechanisms that can make biodiversity funding more transparent, credible and accessible for farmers and investors alike: Biodiversity is not the cherry on the cake: it must become the main weave of agriculture.

The full recording of the Technical Day is available here (English subtitles available):
👉  www.youtube.com

Imagine a company that reports a profit — but only because its activities depleted a wetland, polluted a river, or pushed soil beyond recovery. Traditional accounting would still call that “success,” because the only thing it measures is money.
In BIO-CAPITAL’s second Deep Dive, Diana Tomakh (GND Partners) introduced a framework that challenges this logic. Triple Capital Accounting asks a simple question with consequences: What if financial results also reflected the value of nature and communities?

From Single Capital to Three

Classic accounting sees only one kind of capital: financial. TCA adds two that have been invisible for decades: Natural capital — forests, soils, rivers, biodiversity, all the systems that make life possible, and Social capital — people’s wellbeing, local livelihoods, equity, safety, and the resilience of communities. Suddenly, a restored grassland, a wetland that prevents flooding, or a farm that stops relying on pesticides are no longer “externalities.” They become part of the value a company creates.

When a Forest Becomes a Line Item

Tomakh used concrete examples to show what this looks like in practice. A forest in the Alps isn’t just scenery — it captures carbon, prevents erosion, protects villages from landslides. In the UK, a wetland doesn’t simply store water — it prevents floods, filters pollutants, creates habitat. TCA measures those benefits and turns them into financial information.

The moment nature is quantified, it can enter the conversations where decisions are made: investments, risk models, project evaluation, and balance sheets. Or as Tomakh put it: “The language of business is finance. If we monetise biodiversity and social wellbeing, we bring them into boardrooms.”

A Bridge Between Ecology and Finance

And that is the point. Triple Capital Accounting is not about turning nature into numbers for fun — it’s about making ecological reality visible to an economic system that currently rewards destruction more easily than restoration.

Within BIO-CAPITAL, the framework connects scientific data with financial tools like payments for ecosystem services, insurance models, nature bonds and biodiversity certificates. It allows investors to see which projects genuinely regenerate ecosystems, and which only claim to.

When nature shows up in financial reporting, two things happen: it becomes comparable — and it becomes protectable.

We are thrilled to announce that BIO-CAPITAL will be attending the ESA Living Planet Symposium 2025, which will take place from 23–27 June 2025 in Vienna, Austria. This flagship Earth Observation (EO) event, organised by the European Space Agency (ESA), brings together scientists, policymakers, researchers and industry professionals to explore the future of EO technologies and their critical role in addressing global environmental challenges.

About the Living Planet Symposium

The Living Planet Symposium (LPS), held every three years, is one of the world’s largest Earth Observation conferences. It provides a platform for sharing scientific findings, showcasing innovative applications and fostering collaboration between institutions and countries. The 2025 edition will highlight the transformative potential of Earth Observation (EO) in advancing climate action, sustainable development and biodiversity conservation, making it the perfect stage for BIO-CAPITAL’s mission and work.

Presenting Research on Biodiversity Certificates

We are proud to announce that the paper titled Object-Based Assessment of Ecosystem Restoration Level for Biodiversity Certificates in Europe, written by Lisa Delvaux, Julien Radoux and Prof. Pierre Defourny, has been accepted for presentation at session F.04.08: Earth Observation for Nature Finance and Ecosystem Accounting.

🗓️ Presentation date: Wednesday, 25 June 2025

🕚 Time: 11:30–13:00

📍 Room: 0.49/0.50

This presentation will introduce a novel approach to quantifying biodiversity gains through object-based remote sensing, which has been tailored to meet the requirements of emerging biodiversity certificates. The aim of these certificates is to establish trustworthy, transparent and scalable mechanisms that support investments in ecosystem restoration, thereby aligning with the objectives of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

The methodology uses Sentinel-2 data and machine learning to identify ecologically homogeneous landscape areas and group them based on land cover and abiotic characteristics. These clusters serve as proxies for biodiversity potential and are used to evaluate the impact of restoration projects through a combination of high-resolution image analysis (e.g. the detection of hedgerows and flower strips) and biophysical metrics. This integrated Earth observation (EO)-based approach supports the development of biodiversity certificates that are both science-driven and policy-relevant.

Visit Us at the Domino-E Stand

You can also find BIO-CAPITAL represented at the Domino-E stand at LPS 2025. While the two projects pursue different goals—Domino-E focusing on strengthening Europe’s Earth Observation infrastructure and BIO-CAPITAL advancing financial innovation for biodiversity restoration—they are connected through their shared communication partner, OIKOPLUS. This collaboration highlights the importance of strategic science communication in bridging the worlds of environmental policy, finance, and Earth Observation.

📍 Stand Location: F14, Level 0, Atrium of the Conference Centre

Whether you’re working on environmental finance, biodiversity monitoring, or EO technologies, we invite you to stop by, exchange ideas, and learn more about how BIO-CAPITAL is contributing to the transformation of nature finance in Europe.

Stay tuned for more updates from the LPS 2025 and follow us on our channels during the event week!