Image of tree trunks in an evergreen forest

Seeing the trees from the wood

BeZero Carbon

24 April 20234 min

Geospatial

This Saturday April 22nd marked the 53rd Annual Earth Day, with this year’s theme ‘Invest in our planet’. But how can you invest in conservation and restoration activities when you don’t even know where the projects are?

BeZero’s Geospatial and Earth Observation team have tirelessly built the world’s most comprehensive dataset of independently audited project boundary data, to help our users see the trees from the wood.

Geospatial and Earth Observation analysis informs all nature based ratings. BeZero Carbon Markets platform users can access maps for over 100 nature based projects, with project areas, reference regions, leakage belts, as well as Key Biodiversity Areas and Protected Areas provided by IBAT.

Screenshot of the Geospatial tab of BeZero Carbon Markets platform

The Voluntary Carbon Market provides a means for companies, countries and consumers to invest in the planet by contributing to conservation and restoration projects.

Around 40% of credits in the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) are nature based credits — *Source: BeZero Carbon database*

However, it’s hard to act with confidence in the market if you don’t even know where the projects are

45% of 150 NBS nature based projects do not make their boundaries reliably available in a digital format. 95-98% of nature based projects do not make their reference regions and leakage belts available — *Source: BeZero Carbon database*

BeZero’s Geospatial and Earth Observation team have corrected and rebuilt project boundary data for over 100 Nature Based projects, the world’s largest audited dataset for project boundary data.

Image of chart showing that project area data is provided by the project or registry around 50% of the time, whereas reference region and leakage belt is reconstructed by BeZero in the majority of cases

Our Geospatial and Earth Observation team is made up of remote sensing and machine learning experts, geostatisticians and field ecologists with over 200 academic articles in publications like Nature and Science, and over 10 thousand citations in the scientific literature.

Geospatial data and Earth Observation techniques inform our ratings coverage of over 100 nature based projects, which make up 100% of AA ratings and 64% of A ratings of more than 300 project ratings on our platform

At the time of writing, 100% of AA rated projects are Nature Based Solutions projects, A rated are around 60%, 55% of BBB rated, 25% BB rated, 10% of B and 35% of C

The team looks at change detection, natural hazards, statistical controls and carbon stocks, with analysis particularly relevant to additionality, over-crediting, non-permanence and leakage risk.

Screenshot of burned area and active fire detection chart on the BeZero Carbon Markets platform, more detail on this chart follows

An example of Natural Hazard analysis driving non-permanence risk. Burned area (bars) and active fire detection (lines) before and after the project start date. Burned area captures the spatial extent of burning, while active fire detections reflect the count of hot pixels at satellite overpass. Data from NASA (MODIS MCD64A1 and VIIRS VNP14IMGML). Available on BeZero Carbon Markets.

Users of the BeZero Carbon Markets platform can find interactive map with Project Areas, Reference regions and Leakage Belts for over 100 nature based projects

Screenshot of the Geospatial tab on BeZero Carbon Markets platform

*Example of project boundaries available for all nature based projects on BeZero Carbon Markets platform.*

Through partnership with the International Biodiversity Assessment Tool Alliance (IBAT), users can also see Key Biodiversity Areas and the World Database on Protected Areas

Screenshot of Geospatial tab on BeZero Carbon Markets platform showing the project area, leakage belt and protected areas

Screenshot of the Geospatial tab in BeZero Carbon Markets platform showing Key Biodiversity Areas and Protected areas

For more information on our Geospatial and Earth observation research and capabilities, as well as data and analysis available on our platform, including drought analytics, fire monitoring, carbon stock density, forest change detection and dynamic baselines, get in touch using the form below.