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Biodiversity as a Service for Swiss Farmers
Across Switzerland’s farmlands, the quiet decline of biodiversity has continued for decades. Insects, birds, and wildflowers — once thriving in the agricultural mosaic — have vanished from vast areas now dominated by uniform fields. Despite ecological performance standards and public subsidies, biodiversity remains at an unsustainably low level, unable to recover under the pressure of intensive production and shrinking farm margins.
For farmers, the dilemma is profound. While they recognize the importance of biodiversity, time, finances, and administrative complexity often prevent meaningful action. Many face tight budgets, 60-hour work weeks, and a system that rewards yield over ecological quality. The result is stagnation — a sector aware of the problem but unable to act effectively.
At the same time, society increasingly demands sustainable food and resilient ecosystems. Yet the current support structures stop short of providing hands-on implementation or demonstrating how biodiversity improvements can coexist with profitability.
improvement in ecological performance (AgroCheck index)
The ReVerde Association introduces a new paradigm for agricultural transformation: Biodiversity as a Service. The idea is simple but transformative — to treat biodiversity restoration as a turnkey service that farmers can access easily, with minimal risk and administrative burden.
Instead of expecting farmers to invest their own resources in ecological measures, ReVerde assumes the implementation risk. It provides an integrated package: assessing the farm’s potential, designing a biodiversity plan, coordinating local implementation, and pre-financing the work. Farmers benefit immediately from improved ecological performance, new income opportunities, and a more resilient operation — without extra workload.
This approach is powered by the AgroCheck methodology, a science-based framework that evaluates a farm’s ecological and economic potential and identifies interventions with the greatest combined benefit. By coupling advisory expertise with concrete action, ReVerde helps farmers turn sustainability goals into measurable, long-term results.
Looking ahead, ReVerde plans to expand through a franchise model that empowers cantonal advisors to offer the service regionally, and to develop a system of biodiversity certificates that allows companies to fund measurable biodiversity gains directly on Swiss farms. Together, these elements form a scalable, self-sustaining model — one that makes biodiversity restoration profitable, replicable, and verifiable.
“For the first time, measurable biodiversity becomes an explicit source of income — for farmers and for those who help restore it.”
Biodiversity as a Service reimagines conservation as collaboration — between farmers, investors, and ecosystems. It shows that ecological restoration can be both scientifically rigorous and economically viable, provided the right structures are in place.
ReVerde’s dual model — combining a non-profit mission with an impact-driven investment vehicle — ensures that profits are reinvested into further ecological improvements, creating a continuous cycle of regeneration.
By aligning economic incentives with ecological outcomes, this initiative has the potential to transform how biodiversity is financed and managed in Switzerland. It replaces fragmented subsidies with a coherent, outcome-based model — one that rewards both the farmers who care for the land and the partners who make it possible.
