ESMC and Partners Highlight Takeaways from First Eco-Harvest Biodiversity Project in Missouri

For Immediate Release: December 14, 2023

With agricultural land making up 44% of the United States, farmers have significant opportunity to protect and enhance biodiversity at scale. The Ecosystem Services Market Consortium’s (ESMC) Eco-Harvest program rewards producers for quantified environmental outcomes – such as increased soil carbon and reduced greenhouse gas emissions – resulting from changes to their management practices. Over the past two years, ESMC worked with partners in Missouri to develop an Eco-Harvest pilot project to study opportunities for maintained and increased biodiversity outcomes on agricultural fields.

The biodiversity pilot project studied both outcomes measurement and producer compensation. Paying producers for improved biodiversity on agricultural lands increases opportunities to generate revenue on less productive portions of farms and helps provide critical habitat for wildlife restoration. This not only rewards producers but also helps ESMC members throughout the agricultural value chain meet their environmental goals.

In 2022 and 2023, working with project sponsor Missouri Department of Conservation and project partners Missouri Corn Merchandising Council, Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council, MFA Incorporated, and Missouri Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, ESMC invited producers in Missouri to participate this pilot project. On 597 acres of corn and soybean field edge strips, 16 farmers seeded native flowering plants, improving the habitat for beneficial insects, birds, and other species. To compare marketability, the corn and soybean councils allowed participation from new fields, existing fields with improvements, and existing high-quality fields.

Biologists from Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever assessed the biodiversity of the acres on two factors: 1. width, as wider strips of land result in more protection for birds, and 2. the number of native flowering plant species present (or in the seed mixes), as more species equals more biodiversity.

With 2 years of results, the project partners came away with learnings to inform developing additional biodiversity project, outcome, and market successes. Based on these, the partners found:

1. Collaboration between the private, non-profit, and public sectors is needed to agree on standardized guidelines, metrics, and rules on biodiversity measurements. Standardization will create greater certainty to give stakeholders confidence to engage in biodiversity projects.
2. The private sector must communicate their interest and support of standardized biodiversity outcome measurements and their willingness to invest in and pay for biodiversity outcomes. This signal will increase producer and stakeholder willingness to undertake biodiversity projects.
3. Producers receive the largest financial payoff when bundling biodiversity and carbon outcomes. When bundled with other ecosystem services benefit sales, biodiversity becomes an added payment.
4. Upfront incentives are essential to encourage middle and late adopter participation in biodiversity projects, especially to cover additional expenses such as seeding.
5. Long-term project partner investments are critical to support the operational costs of maintaining biodiverse areas, provide needed technical support, and to act as thought collaborators on biodiversity projects.

The first and second learnings are essential to increase the further creation and momentum of biodiversity markets for agriculture.

Said ESMC’s Executive Director, Debbie Reed, “We see our role as multifold – helping to navigate this incredibly complex, but incredibly important, opportunity for producers to continue land stewardship through biodiversity preservation and improvements. Through Eco-Harvest, we can incentivize biodiversity investments, help operationalize actions with producers on the ground, and transparently track and verify the accuracy of biodiversity outcomes achieved. Our consortium of over 60 member organizations is poised to coordinate and scale these opportunities for increased biodiversity. We greatly appreciate our partners in this project and their dedication to learn and to share those learnings with all stakeholders; these are essential to make biodiversity investments happen. We will continue to pioneer biodiversity projects with members and stakeholders to ensure a more certain future for all.”