Business and Biodiversity: Cross-sectorial Information
Cross-sectorial Information
Biological diversity and the ecosystem services that nature provides are closely linked but nevertheless different issues. The existing publications and sources of information have different focusses.
Guidelines, general information
Guidelines, general information
Information modules "Basic knowledge: companies and biodiversity"
The five modules published by the 'Biodiversity in Good Company' Initiative offer guidance, suggestions and advice, helpful not only for large, but also smaller businesses
Mainstreaming the Topic of Biodiversity in Corporate Sustainability Management – Experience and Recommendations from the ‘Biodiversity in Good Company’ Initiative
Position paper of the 'Biodiversity in Good Company' members, published in December 2016.
Corporate Biodiversity Management Handbook
Schaltegger, Stefan; Beständig, Uwe: Corporate Biodiversity Management Handbook – A guide for practical implementaion, ed. by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, 3rd edition, Berlin 2012.
Elaborated in 2010 together with the 'Biodiversity in Good Company' Initiative
Hanson, C., J. Ranganathan, C. Iceland, and J. Finisdore (2012): The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review: Guidelines for Identifying Business Risks and Opportunities Arising from Ecosystem Change. Version 2.0. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute (available in various languages).
ERM/IUCN/PwC/WBCSD (2011): Guide to Corporate Ecosystem Services Valuation - A framework for improving corporate decision-making (available in various languages)
Joël Houdet: Le bilan biodiversité - Une méthodoloqie pour intégrer la nature dans votre comptabilité, 2012. (French)
Biodiversity footprinting method through the accounting of its dependencies and impacts on ecosystem services.
TEEB
Selected tools, maps
www.protectedplanet.net
ProtectedPlanet.net is the online interface for the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), a joint project of IUCN and UNEP, and the most comprehensive global database on terrestrial and marine protected areas.
www.biodiversitya-z.org/areas/22
a–z Areas of Biodiversity Importance: The A to Z guide is an online resource to provide clear, concise and relevant information about various important areas for biodiversity conservation ranging from World Heritage Sites to Key Biodiversity Areas, which can be used by all sectors including business, government and environmental agencies.
http://www.keybiodiversityareas.org/home
The World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas™ is managed by BirdLife International on behalf of the KBA Partnership. It hosts data on global and regional Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), including Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas identified by the BirdLife International Partnership, Alliance for Zero Extinction sites, KBAs identified through hotspot ecosystem profiles supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, and a small number of other KBAs. The database was developed from the World Bird and Biodiversity Database (WBDB) managed by BirdLife International.
www.iucnredlist.org/
The IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM assesses the risk of species becoming extinct.
www.iucnredlistofecosystems.org/
The IUCN Red List of Ecosystem compiles information on the state of the world’s ecosystems at different geographic scales. Its central objective is to assess the risk of ecosystem collapse.
www.globio.info
GLOBIO is a modelling framework to calculate the impact of environmental drivers on biodiversity for past, present and future. GLOBIO is based on cause-effect relationships, derived from the literature. To use GLOBIO no detailed species data are needed. Instead, the model uses spatial information on environmental drivers as input.
www.hcvnetwork.org
The HCV Resource Network intends to ensure the consistent application of the High Conservation Value approach (HCV), one of the most important tools for responsible land management and responsible sourcing. It is also a keystone component of major voluntary sustainability standards schemes.
www.ibatforbusiness.org
IBAT for business is a tool designed to facilitate access to accurate and up-to-date biodiversity information to support critical business decisions. The tool is the result of a conservation partnership among BirdLife International, Conservation International, International Union for Conservation of Nature and UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
BSR: Measuring and Managing Corporate Performance in an Era of Expanded Disclosure: A Review of the Emerging Domain of Ecosystem Services Tools, January 2013
Overview with brief description of existing tools.
Eco4Biz – Ecosystem services and biodiversity tools to support business decision-making, ed. World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Version 1, April 2013
Overview with brief description of existing tools.
Biodiversity for business: A guide to using knowledge products delivered through IUCN (WBCSD and IUCN, 2014)
The brochure comprises databases and tools in order make companies more familiar with already available biodiversity information.
ValuES: Methods for integrating ecosystem services into policy, planning, and practice
ValuES is a global project that aids decision-makers in partner countries of Germany in recognizing and integrating ecosystem services into policy making, planning and implementation of specific projects. On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) as part of the International Climate Initiative (ICI), the ValuES project is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in close collaboration with the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF). Includes a Method Navigator.
Reporting
Guideline on how to integrate biodiversity issues into the logic of sustainability reporting along the lines of the GRI standard.
Global Reporting Initiative (2011): Approach for reporting on ecosystem services –Incorporating ecosystem services into an organization’s performance disclosure
Guideline on options for integrating ecosystem services into reporting. The publication suggests different approaches and raises open questions.
Corporate Biodiversity - Reporting and Indicators, hrsg. IUCN French Committee, France 2014
Situation analysis and recommendations.
Biodiversity in standards and management systems
State of Sustainability Initiatives (SSI)/ International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) (2017): "Standards and Biodiversity" Thematic Review
Authors: Jason Potts, Vivek Voora, Matthew Lynch, Aynur Mammadova
The review covers 15 major international standards initiatives operating in the banana, cocoa, coffee, cotton, palm oil, soy, sugar, tea and cereals (rice, maize and wheat) sectors.
UNEP-WCMC (2011): Review of the Biodiversity Requirements of Standards and Certification Schemes: A snapshot of current practices. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montréal, Canada. Technical Series No. 63.
Examines 36 standards from 8 sectors in how far they integrate biodiversity aspects.
Biodiversity in Standards and Labels for the Food Industry
EU LIFE Project started in 2016 by The Global Nature Fund, Lake Constance Foundation, Agentur AUF! (Germany), the Fundación Global Nature (Spain), Solagro and agoodforgood (France) and Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal).
Offsetting
Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP)
Collaboration of more than 75 leading organizations and individuals including companies, financial institutions, government agencies and civil society organizations, who are members of its Advisory Group. Together, the members are testing and developing best practice on biodiversity offsets and conservation banking worldwide.
Note: Germany has an advanced regulation on offsetting as part of its nature conservancy regulation.)
Natural Capital Accounting
Natural Capital Coalition and Natural Capital Protocol
Global multi-stakeholder collaboration that brings together initiatives and organizations to harmonize approaches to natural capital. The main product is the Natural Capital Protocol (NCP), a methodological framework.
Natural Capital Protocol Toolkit
This interactive database helps businesses find tools to measure and value natural capital as they use the Natural Capital Protocol.
Initiative for better integration of biodiversity in the Natural Capital Protocol
When the draft of the Natural Capital Protocol was released for public consultation, over 100 comments focused on the need to address biodiversity differently. In recognition of these challenges, the Coalition has launched a new project to strengthen the way biodiversity is covered in the Protocol. It is led by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI).
University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) (2016). Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Corporate Natural Capital Accounting: Synthesis report.
The methodology to measure corporate impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services in the context of natural capital accounting was explored during a two-day workshop hosted CISL and Kering.
Supply Chain
Further information covering supply chain issues also under standards/management systems
Information modules "Basic knowledge: companies and biodiversity" – Module 3: "Biodiversity in the value and supply chains – Overview of the challenges"
Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Fauna & Flora International, University of East Anglia, & UNEP-WCMC (2017) The pollination deficit: Towards supply chain resilience in the face of pollinator decline. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, UK, 42 pp.
The decline in pollinators has become an issue of common concern. The Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) has published a report targeting emerging supply chain risks and ways to cope with them.
Creating partnerships for biodiversity protection
ECNC – European Centre for Nature Conservation (2013): Creating Green Deals: Helping the business sector to set up partnerships for business and biodiversity
This guide aims to help Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to take up the challenge of protecting biodiversity and through that to provide security for the long-term sustainability of their businesses. The focus is on partnerships between businesses and environmental and non-governmental organizations in the field of nature and sustainability. These partnerships are very important to SMEs.
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