Terrasos Voluntary Biodiversity Credits — El Globo Habitat Bank (Colombia)

The Bosque de Niebla – El Globo Habitat Bank was launched in 2020 by Terrasos, in partnership with ClimateTrade, as the first project in Colombia registered under the country's national biodiversity-offset framework to issue tradeable Voluntary Biodiversity Credits. It is located in the Cuchilla Jardín–Támesis Integrated Management District in Antioquia and protects Andean cloud forest that supplies six local aqueducts and shelters more than 20 threatened species, including the spectacled bear. Each credit conserves or restores 10 square metres of forest for a 30-year term.

The 340-hectare El Globo bank sold credits for roughly US$35 as of February 2024, and Terrasos has since scaled the model to 16 registered habitat banks covering more than 8,144 hectares of conservation and restoration land across Colombia. A separate Terrasos bank, 'Meta,' sold out its full allocation of 600 biodiversity credits in 2023, securing three decades of protection for that site and offering independent confirmation that the credits sell in practice.

The voluntary biodiversity credit market remains young and lacks a single international verification standard; credit prices are low (roughly US$25-35) and depend on discretionary corporate ESG budgets rather than compliance obligations, so demand — and therefore the durability of conservation funding beyond each 30-year term — is not assured.