A typology to demystify the positive actions businesses can take to contribute to ‘nature positive’ goals
New research from The Biodiversity Consultancy (TBC) and the University of Oxford explores the types of positive action that businesses can take to contribute to nature positive goals.
Businesses are increasingly seeing opportunities to improve supply chain resilience and generate value through investing in the recovery and uplift of nature, above and beyond avoiding and reducing their own direct impacts. Such investment also supports the global nature positive goal of halting and reversing biodiversity loss.
There is a wide range of types of positive action available to business, especially as they consider their entire value chains. However, existing guidance uses a wide range of terms to describe these different positive actions, often inconsistently. This can lead to confusion on how to select, scale, describe, and measure, positive actions for nature. Ashley Bang (Principal Consultant at TBC and Visiting Researcher at the University of Oxford), who led the study said:
As businesses look to align with the global nature positive goal, they are faced with a complex landscape of actions that can be taken. From offsetting new impacts to counter balancing historical impacts, how do these actions all fit into a nature positive journey? Clarity on the terminology and guidance on selecting appropriate actions will be key to developing transparent and effective corporate biodiversity strategies.
An important first step was therefore to map out and classify the types of positive actions that businesses can take. Factors used to classify actions include:
- Level of responsibility taken by the company
- Links of the action to negative impacts, stage of the mitigation hierarchy, and;
- Uncertainty in quantifying losses or gains in biodiversity.
The resulting action types that are characterised range from biodiversity offsets and remediation, to counterbalancing historical impacts, and additional conservation actions.
A decision-tree then helps businesses classify their actions, informing understanding of how different types of action can sit together as part of a nature strategy.
We also provide some key principles that can guide the use and appropriateness of these different types of actions, including guidance on reducing uncertainty in losses and gains, assessing appropriate levels of responsibility for negative impacts, and setting baselines and timeframes in biodiversity strategies. Dr Laura Sonter (Technical Director, Science, Policy & Innovation at TBC and Senior Author of the study) stated:
We hope this is a good first step towards clarifying the broad types of positive actions businesses can take to address biodiversity impacts and contribute to Nature Positive. However, important questions remain, such as ‘how much action is enough?’ and ‘how would priority actions differ among sectors?’. As highlighted at this week’s IUCN World Conservation Congress, there is strong and growing business interest in taking positive action for nature, and we’re excited to continue exploring these questions through our ongoing work and collaborations with industry and academia.
This work feeds into ongoing research at The Biodiversity Consultancy and the University of Oxford, helping to promote effective and equitable organisational strategies to address biodiversity loss.
The preprint can be downloaded here. We would love to get your feedback and thoughts to help refine future versions.
For more information, or if you are interested in our research and services, please do get in touch with us at enquiries@thebiodiversityconsultancy.com
Category: Publications
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