Savimbo Biodiversity Credits (Certified)
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Certified Biodiversity Credit - the world's first of its kind - Cercarbono-certified, Ecoregistry-tracked, and tradable on commodity exchanges. Each unit represents one hectare of intact Colombian Amazon protected for one month, verified by observed indicator species. The methodology was co-written with Indigenous communities who have guarded this ecosystem for generations at personal cost. This isn't offsetting - extinction is irreversible, and nature's rights are non-negotiable. What buyers are purchasing is a direct economic perimeter around a living forest, with payment flowing straight to the people protecting it. First movers. History makers.
What is a biodiversity credit?
Savimbo’s biodiversity credit is a unit of payment to an Indigenous or local community for protecting one hectare of an intact ecosystem for one month, verified by the observed presence of indicator species.
Unlike carbon credits, their biodiversity credits cannot be used to offset harm elsewhere. Nature has rights under Indigenous protocol - you can't compensate for destruction in one place by protecting another, any more than you can offset a human rights violation. And unlike carbon, which can cycle between states, biodiversity loss is irreversible. Extinction is permanent.
What a buyer is actually doing is funding the conservation economy that keeps a living ecosystem alive - the same function national parks serve, but in territories where no government funding reaches. The credit is the economic perimeter around an intact forest. The money goes directly to the people protecting it: the jaguar trackers, the small farmers, the Indigenous communities who have been doing this work at a loss for decades.
Savimbo's credits are built on a publicly available methodology co-written with Indigenous Peoples in the Colombian Amazon. Every certified credit is traceable from a timestamped field observation to an issued unit - certified by Cercarbono, tracked on Ecoregistry, and listed on commodity exchanges.
Who are Savimbo
Savimbo is a social enterprise made by, and for, Indigenous Peoples and local communities to access climate markets directly. They stop deforestation by creating economic incentives for the people already working for the planet - selling biodiversity, carbon, tree, and water credits, alongside ecotourism and agrobiodiversity crops. Their charitable arm supports communities with land rights, literacy, and living conditions.
Indigenous Peoples protect 30% of the intact planet and an estimated 80% of its biodiversity. They receive less than 1% of climate funding. Savimbo exists to fix that.
How much of this revenue goes to locals?
We're glad you asked, because this is important to all of us too.
50% of gross revenue goes directly to the originating landowners - the Indigenous small farmers and local communities doing the conservation work. Of Savimbo's remaining portion, the company itself is two-thirds Indigenous-founded, 7% owned by successful community suppliers, and 7% owned by a staff that is over 90% locally hired.
The money doesn't pass through intermediaries. That's the point.
How do you track impact?
Every credit is grounded in our Indicator Species Biodiversity Methodology - written by and for Indigenous groups in rare ecosystems, and translated to markets using applied chaos theory. Rather than attempting to measure every variable in a complex living system, it identifies keystone indicator species whose healthy presence proves a functional ecosystem. If the jaguar is there, the forest is working.
Monitoring is non-invasive and community-led: camera traps, photographs, and audio recordings by local trackers who know this land intimately. Every observation is timestamped, geolocated, and independently verified before a credit is issued. No ex-ante projections - only confirmed, ex-post outcomes.
Direct payment to the people doing this work isn't a feature of the methodology. It's the foundation of it.
How much stock is available?
The current certified inventory launched with 40k units and is publicly tracked in real time on the Ecoregistry project page.
That stock comes from a large collective of over 250 Indigenous smallholder farmers and four Indigenous groups, located in the Tropical Andean biodiversity hotspot. Farmers have signed 30-year conservation contracts with a minimum 50% gross revenue share from credit sales - so this is long-term, committed land, not a one-off project.
Credits are generated after approximately a year of species monitoring, with indicator species tracked and pre-validated through iNaturalist before a single credit is issued. Stock grows as verification completes, not before.
They are also actively expanding. Active projects are underway in Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama, with a growing portfolio under review across 25 countries and five continents - including Brazil, Kenya, India, Madagascar, Gabon, and Canada. Projects cover biodiversity credits, carbon, reforestation, water, and agrobiodiversity, with confirmed hectares in the pipeline already running into the millions.
