Grouped  Project

PATAGONIA WILD FRONTIER

Patagonia Wild Frontier, utilizes SDVM002's biodiversity quantification process for grouped projects.

 The project defines ecosystem types and measures indicators (composition, structure, function) against minimally disturbed baselines to assess ecological integrity. Using area-adjusted scores, it quantifies biodiversity condition, applies leakage and project impact adjustments, yielding verified Nature Credits.

Patagonia Wild Frontier operates as a grouped project under Verra's SD VISta Nature Framework, allowing for the addition of multiple project sites with uniform biodiversity objectives and eligibility standards. 

Grouped projects enable the seamless expansion of conservation activities, requiring only initial validation for each new site rather than revalidating the entire project, making this approach highly efficient and scalable for regional biodiversity restoration initiatives. Through this framework, Patagonia Wild Frontier focuses on the conservation of native ecosystems, including reforestation and revegetation efforts designed to restore and enhance biodiversity in Patagonia's vulnerable landscapes .

Using a structured, multi-step quantification process, the project adheres to rigorous protocols to measure biodiversity outcomes, beginning with defining the ecosystem types within the project area and assessing both extent and condition at project onset. The project selects specific indicators related to ecosystem composition, structure, function, and pressures, establishing reference values to benchmark ecological integrity against a baseline with minimal human disturbance. 

Condition indicators are standardized against reference values to calculate area-adjusted condition scores, which, after accounting for leakage and project-driven changes in biodiversity, yield net biodiversity outcomes. These outcomes are then scaled to generate Nature Credits, representing measurable and verified biodiversity improvements that contribute to regional and global conservation goals .

Biodiversity offsets are measurable conservation outcomes from actions designed to compensate for significant residual negative biodiversity impacts identified after appropriate avoidance, minimization, and on-site rehabilitation measures have occurred in the mitigation hierarchy. Offsets typically need to generate equivalent biodiversity values to those that are lost. Since biodiversity is place-specific and not fungible globally, offsetting schemes are almost always local and often regulatory-based. 

In contrast, Nature Credits are an economic instrument for financing positive biodiversity outcomes. They are generated independently and are likely to be spatially or temporally distant from the negative impacts of companies' value chains. Therefore, use of Nature Credits to offset new, attributable negative business impacts on biodiversity is inappropriate because Nature Credits are unlikely to generate ecologically equivalent values to those damaged by business activity.