Launched in May 2025, the U21 Nature Positive Coalition is a global alliance of universities working under the Universitas 21 banner. In partnership with the Nature Positive Initiative, the coalition is evaluating and refining the newly developed ‘State of Nature’ metrics designed to measure biodiversity outcomes within emerging biodiversity markets.

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Why This Matters

Nature is being lost at an unprecedented rate due to the growing demands of feeding, housing, and powering a global population. This degradation threatens ecosystems, economies, and human wellbeing worldwide.

A partial collapse of ecosystems by 2030 could cost the global economy an estimated US$2.7 trillion. In response, the Nature Positive Initiative introduced a set of biodiversity metrics intended to help businesses, policymakers, and restoration projects measure environmental impact and progress.

While the metrics are already being piloted by organisations across more than 30 countries; their social, ecological, legal and economic behaviour under realistic implementation conditions has not yet been rigorously tested. This represents a critical knowledge gap, that could lead to misleading signals, fail to detect meaningful ecological change, or impose monitoring burden that limits their uptakes.

The U21 Nature Positive Coalition was established to provide the interdisciplinary research needed to ensure these metrics are scientifically robust, socially equitable, and practically implementable across diverse global contexts.

Why Testing the Metrics is Essential

The coalition’s work recognises that biodiversity markets face many of the same risks previously experienced in carbon markets, including weak regulation, inconsistent measurement standards, and concerns around greenwashing.

Without proper assessment and testing, biodiversity metrics may struggle to gain trust, influence policy, or deliver meaningful environmental outcomes.

Through collaborative international research, the coalition aims to strengthen confidence in biodiversity measurement systems before they are adopted at scale.