Selling Nature: The EU’s Role in Creating Markets For Biodiversity

The idea of “nature” or “biodiversity” credits is gaining traction as a proposed solution to the growing biodiversity crisis. These credits should certify measurable biodiversity gains, such as habitat restoration or species protection, and make them available for purchase by companies, investors or governments. Advocates, including the World Economic Forum and some conservation organisations, describe them as tradable financial instruments that can mobilise private investment at scale. The European Commission has embraced this agenda, publishing a “Roadmap towards Nature Credits” in July 2025 and launching pilot projects in Europe and the Global South.

While publicly acknowledging the urgency of biodiversity loss and climate breakdown, EU governments have pursued austerity-driven budget proposals, eroding the public spending necessary for social well-being and meaningful ecological restoration.

To make up for the public funds redirected from climate and biodiversity spending, the Commission now brought out the concept of nature credits, promoted as “voluntary markets” to help incentivise nature-positive action.

The study emerges from the urgent need for a recognition that the struggle over nature is inseparable from the wider struggle over our society and economy. The still-dominant political paradigm rests on the false idea that human prosperity can be pursued independently of ecological wellbeing — a separation that ultimately serves those who profit from both environmental destruction and the exploitation of labour. This system is funnelling the amassed capital upward while externalising social and ecological costs, falling especially at those most vulnerable.

The study therefore takes a closer look at the Commission’s plans, exposing the interest groups and political motivations behind nature credits. It examines why the EU’s promotion of biodiversity credits is premature, deeply flawed, and risks repeating the mistakes of carbon offset markets. The study also proposes a way forward by outlining key steps needed to truly tackle the nature and biodiversity crisis.

We hope that this study can be a useful tool for movements, researchers and decision-makers working toward an ecological and socialist alternative — one that treats nature not as a certificate to buy, but as the shared foundation of our collective future.

This study was co-produced by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Brussels Office and Friends of the Earth Europe, and authored by Simon Counsell and Clara Bourgin.

RLS Brussels_Study_Selling NaturePDF file (2,28 MB)