Agoterra × Noé Biodiversity Certificates Pilot — Hauts-de-France & Normandy Farms

Agoterra, a French impact-finance company, and Noé, a French biodiversity NGO, launched in early 2026 a five-year pilot under the Organization for Biodiversity Certificates (OBC) framework, covering 30 farmers across the Hauts-de-France and Normandy regions, mainly on sugar-beet and flax rotations. Certificates are generated through a methodology the organisers say is validated by an independent expert committee and aligned with the European Commission's emerging "Nature Credits" approach.
Farms are scored across 17 practice themes covering habitat and infrastructure measures (hedgerows, temporary grasslands, buffer strips, ponds, agroforestry) and production-system changes (tillage, crop diversification, pesticide use), each with up to five implementation levels tied to a defined biodiversity-gain score. Corporate buyers La Banque Postale, Dior and Norsys have pre-committed funding, but because the pilot only began in 2026, on-the-ground biodiversity outcomes have not yet been measured; organisers deliberately use the term "certificates" rather than "credits" to avoid implying compensation for prior environmental damage.

Read the full analysis: https://www.reussir.fr/credits-biodiversite-agoterra-et-noe-lancent-les-premiers-certificats-dans-lagriculture