Biodiversity Assessment (OI5929)

This metric is intended to capture whether the organization completes any type of biodiversity measurement, from tailormade species inventories in the field to high-level modeling. Examples of information that such assessments may cover, which organizations should footnote, include: the species present in a given area, invasive species present, habitat conditions, overexploitation of natural resources, availability and quality of water resources, potential effect of production on adjacent crops, historical/archaeological importance of the land, impact of climate change or pollutions, or existence of regulations related to the site (e.g., catchments area, protected area).

Organizations are also encouraged to footnote details about the frequency and system with which they conduct their biodiversity assessments.

Various biodiversity measurement tools are available (for more information, see European Business & Biodiversity Platform’s workstream on methods, https://ec.europa.eu/environment/biodiversity/business/workstreams/methods/index_en.htm). Organizations are encouraged, albeit with caution, to embrace innovative measurement approaches to improve accuracy.

Organizations are encouraged to report this metric alongside others in the Biodiversity IRIS+ Core Metrics Set, as tailored to context, that give a complementary, more complete picture of biodiversity performance.

The level of application (e.g., project, site, or organization) and business context of the collected data will heavily inform the type of assessment performed. Examples of business context, to footnote, include screening on biodiversity risks, identifying restoration opportunities, tracking progress against targets (such as biodiversity no net loss or net gain), comparing investment options, and benchmarking.