What are biodiversity credits and how could they save Paddington Bear? : Planet Money : NPR

Ferns are growing where there used to be cattle pastures at the El Globo habitat bank and nature reserve in Antioquia, Colombia. In the background are hills that neighbors cleared for cattle pasture.

Stan Alcorn/NPR

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Stan Alcorn/NPR

Ferns are growing where there used to be cattle pastures at the El Globo habitat bank and nature reserve in Antioquia, Colombia. In the background are hills that neighbors cleared for cattle pasture.

Stan Alcorn/NPR

Our planet is in serious trouble. There are a million species of plants and animals in danger of extinction, and the biggest cause is companies destroying their habitats to farm food, mine minerals, and otherwise get the raw materials to turn into the products we all consume.

So, when Mauricio Serna was in college, he realized his family’s plot of land in Colombia, called El Globo, presented a unique opportunity. Sure, it had historically been a cattle ranch. But if he could get the money to turn it back into cloud forest, perhaps it could once again be a habitat for the animals who used to live there — animals like the yellow-eared parrot, the tree ocelot, and the spectacled bear (of Paddington fame).

On today’s show, Mauricio’s quest to make a market for a new-ish financial instrument: the biodiversity credit. We peek under the hood to try to figure out how these credits actually work. Is the hype around them a bunch of hot air? Or could they be a critical tool for saving thousands of species around the world?

Today’s episode was hosted by Stan Alcorn and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. It was co-reported by Tomás Uprimny. It was produced by James Sneed, edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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Music: Source Audio – “Stunt So Hard,” “EAT,” and “Menage a Moi.”