A glossary of key terms in natural capital, eco-points and nature-based investment.
Eco-points are quantified units of ecological improvement generated under the German and Austrian impact mitigation regulation. They are created when a piece of land is actively upgraded ecologically — for example through rewilding, extensification or habitat development — and can be purchased by project developers who cause impacts on nature elsewhere.
The impact mitigation regulation is a legal instrument under Germany’s Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG §§ 14–18). It obliges anyone whose development, infrastructure or other project causes impacts on nature and landscape to avoid, minimise or compensate for those impacts. Compensation typically takes the form of ecological upgrade measures — often quantified as eco-points.
Natural capital refers to the stock of natural resources, ecosystems and biodiversity that provides services to society and the economy — from drinking water to pollination and climate regulation. The term treats nature economically as a capital stock that can be maintained, built up or consumed. Unlike produced capital, many losses of natural capital are irreversible.
Ecosystem services are the diverse contributions that intact ecosystems make to people. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) distinguishes four categories: provisioning services (food, water, raw materials), regulating services (flood protection, climate regulation, pollination), cultural services (recreation, aesthetics) and supporting services (soil formation, nutrient cycling).
A biodiversity offset is a compensation measure that offsets the measurable loss of biodiversity caused by a project at another location. The principle follows the so-called mitigation hierarchy: first avoid, then minimise, then compensate — with the goal of achieving no net loss or even a net gain. Germany’s eco-point system is a legislatively anchored biodiversity offset mechanism.
PES are market-based mechanisms in which the beneficiaries of ecosystem services — companies, municipalities, governments — pay directly to the land managers who provide and protect those services. Classic examples include drinking water protection programmes (farmers receive payments for ecological land management in catchment areas) and carbon payments for forest conservation. The eco-point system is a regulatory special case of PES.
The Biotopwert (habitat value) is the metric used in the German impact mitigation system to describe the ecological condition of a piece of land. Each habitat type — arable land, grassland, peatland, forest — has a defined baseline value; improvement measures increase this value. The difference between current condition and upgraded condition, multiplied by the area in square metres, yields the number of eco-points. One point equals an improvement of one habitat value point per square metre.
TNFD stands for Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. It is an international framework (published September 2023) that provides companies and financial institutions with a standardised system for identifying, assessing and disclosing nature-related risks and opportunities — analogous to TCFD for climate risks. In the EU, TNFD is progressively becoming standard through the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the reporting standard ESRS E4.
“Nature-positive” is an overarching goal of international biodiversity policy: to halt and reverse the loss of nature by 2030, so that more nature exists than today. The concept goes beyond “No Net Loss” and targets a measurable net gain in biodiversity. It forms the political framework of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022) and the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030.
Carbon credits represent the avoidance or storage of one tonne of CO₂ and are traded on global voluntary or regulated emissions trading markets. Eco-points, by contrast, are a national instrument that assesses the overall ecological quality of a piece of land — biodiversity, habitat function, water balance — not only its carbon. They are more tightly regulated, geographically localised and intended for project developers with a statutory compensation obligation.
A National Restoration Plan (NRP) is the central implementation instrument of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation (2024/1991). Every EU member state must submit its NRP to the European Commission by September 2026, setting out which areas will be restored, where, and by what measures. The NRPs will shape the spatial landscape for nature conservation investment across Europe for years to come.
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