Biodiversity 101: The Twin Crises

Biodiversity 101: The Twin Crises

The Case for Biodiversity: A Missing Piece in Global Climate Action

Global wildlife populations have declined by more than 70% on average since 1970, according to the WWF Living Planet Report

This staggering loss highlights a truth we can no longer ignore. We’re facing not just one, but two environmental crises: climate change and biodiversity loss.

While climate change dominates global headlines (and climate agreements like the Paris Agreement are widely known) there’s a second, equally urgent treaty that most people have never heard of.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is the international commitment to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. Together, these two treaties represent humanity’s best chance at healing our planet. But there’s a major gap in how we’re putting them into action.

Two Global Agreements, One Planet to Protect

Most of us have heard of the Paris Agreement, the legally binding 2015 treaty to limit global warming to well below 2°C. It gave rise to the carbon markets that now fund climate action around the world.

But far fewer know about the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022. This global biodiversity treaty, signed under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), sets out ambitious targets to protect and restore nature,  including the landmark “30x30” goal: protecting 30% of Earth’s land and ocean by 2030.

Here’s the issue: while carbon markets help fund climate progress, there’s no global equivalent for biodiversity restoration. Not yet, anyway.

The Missing Piece: A Marketplace for Biodiversity

To reach global biodiversity goals, we need more than pledges and protected areas. We need:

  • Projects that measure real, on-the-ground biodiversity improvements (AKA biodiversity uplift)

  • Transparent systems for tracking and verifying progress

  • Scalable funding to support long-term restoration

In other words, we need a marketplace for biodiversity uplift, one that works for nature, for local communities, and for the planet.

 


Introducing: Seatrees + Biodiversity

At Seatrees, we asked: What if you could directly support biodiversity uplift the same way you support carbon removal, through a measurable, trackable, and community-powered system?

That’s exactly what we’re building.

The answer: Seatrees+,  our new class of premium projects designed to accelerate ecosystem regeneration in three powerful ways:

  • Seatrees + Biodiversity
  • Seatrees + Climate
  • Seatrees + Science

We’re kicking things off with Seatrees + Biodiversitya restoration solution designed for the emerging Biodiversity Marketplace. Here, units of biodiversity uplift are sold as credits. We call them Biodiversity Blocks.

Each Biodiversity Block represents real, measurable restoration work, starting with our first available offering: the Mangrove Biodiversity Block. That’s one mangrove tree planted and backed by 10 years of monitoring, protection, and community-led stewardship.

This isn’t just tree planting. It’s a long-term investment in life beneath the surface and livelihoods above it. These credits restore ecosystems like mangrove forests and coral reefs, some of the most vital and vulnerable biodiversity hotspots on Earth.

From Global Goals to Local Action

Seatrees + Biodiversity turns the ambitious goals of the Kunming-Montreal Framework into tangible restoration on the ground. It’s designed to support the communities who know these ecosystems best, with transparent reporting and long-term support built in.

Because restoring nature isn’t just about saving wildlife - it’s about protecting coastal communities, strengthening ecosystems, and building resilience in the face of climate change.

This is how we scale biodiversity restoration, one Seatree at a time. Stay tuned this month for more on Seatrees+ and how you too, can bring back our planet's biodiversity.