Operationalizing biodiversity credits to catalyze coral reef management and investment

Effective biodiversity conservation for coral reef ecosystems requires both climate mitigation and enhanced management. The current scale of reef management, and the resulting capacity to deliver ecosystem benefits, is limited by a lack of adequate, accessible, sustainable, and scalable funding. Our perspective explores the opportunities and challenges of emerging biodiversity frameworks and nature-based funding instruments (especially biodiversity credits) to catalyze investments needed to increase the scale, nature, and effectiveness of coral reef conservation. Foundational work needed to establish high-integrity coral reef biodiversity credits is under way, including the development of a robust biodiversity accounting framework relevant across a broad range of coral reef habitats and regions. Explicit focus on ecosystem structure, composition, and functions provides a clear direction and rationale for selecting relevant metrics for biodiversity accounting. However, ongoing targeted research and innovation are needed to increase efficacy and efficiency of coral reef management while adapting to changing conditions and demands.