Summary
Increasing awareness of the scale and characteristics of biodiversity loss has led to high-level prioritisation for policymakers in, for example, the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (CBD, 2021), and also a proliferation of initiatives and platforms led by the business sector or civil society to help businesses better account for their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity and natural capital. In the past five years, there has been a proliferation of research and practice multi-stakeholder initiatives, platforms and coalitions to advance the development, alignment and uptake of biodiversity measurement approaches and tools by businesses and financial institutions. Many of these have published structured overviews of tools and approaches, each within a specific context. This report compares and critically assesses a selection of tools for the evaluation of biodiversity impacts by businesses based on tool context, methods, conceptualisation of biodiversity, user base and scale of assessment. It also seeks to understand different pathways for i) operationalisation of different concepts of biodiversity in a way that supports ‘mainstreaming’ biodiversity-based decisions and ii) alignment with the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework 2030 action targets. The report also provides recommendations for tool development to better align with both Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework targets as well as identify opportunities where further research can support UK policy objectives.