Landmark new IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment highlights approaches and more than 100 specific actions for businesses, governments, financial actors and civil society to understand, measure and respond to business impacts and dependencies on nature.

Every business depends directly or indirectly on biodiversity, and every business impacts biodiversity.  

Biodiversity loss now poses a critical and pervasive systemic risk to the economy, financial stability and human wellbeing. This is a central finding of a landmark new report published by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). 

Approved on 9 February 2026, by representatives of the more than 150 member Governments of IPBES, during the twelfth session of the IPBES Plenary, hosted in Manchester, United Kingdom, the IPBES Methodological Assessment Report on the Impact and Dependence of Business on Biodiversity and Nature’s Contributions to People (known as the Business and Biodiversity assessment) is a product of three years of work by 79 leading experts from 35 countries, in consultation with science and the private sector, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

The Report directly builds on the insights and evidence of many previous IPBES assessments – particularly the 2019 Global Assessment, the 2022 Values Assessment and the 2024 Nexus and Transformative Change Assessments. The report finds that the current conditions in which businesses operate are largely not compatible with achieving a just and sustainable future, perpetuating systemic risks. It then offers much-needed clarity and coherence to guide actions by businesses, governments and others to move towards an enabling environment in which both business and nature thrive.

A team of experts at UNEP-WCMC provided technical expertise and coordination support to IPBES throughout the Business and Biodiversity Assessment, including Matt Jones, UNEP-WCMC's Chief Impact Officer serving as a co-chair to the assessment and Sharon Brooks, UNEP-WCMC's Head of Nature Economy and coordinating lead author of Chapter 4 of the assessment. We also contributed to much of the data, tools and guidance that the assessment draws on. 

Business-as-usual Incentives are Driving Nature’s Decline  

Current conditions perpetuate business-as-usual and do not support the transformative change necessary to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. For example, large subsidies that drive losses of biodiversity are directed to business activities with the support of lobbying by businesses and trade associations. In 2023, global public and private finance flows with directly negative impacts on nature, were estimated at $7.3 trillion, of which private finance accounted for $4.9 trillion, with public spending on environmentally harmful subsidies of about $2.4 trillion.  

In contrast, $220 billion in public and private finance flows were directed in 2023 to activities contributing to the conservation and restoration of biodiversity, representing just 3% of the public funds and incentives that encourage harmful business behaviour or prevent behaviour beneficial to biodiversity. The Report highlights that business as usual is not inevitable and that with the right policies as well as financial and cultural shifts, businesses can alleviate their cumulative effects on biodiversity loss.  

Measuring Impacts and Dependencies  

The Report finds that a wide range of methods, knowledge and data exist for measuring business impacts and dependencies, but the application and uptake of these methods is found to be low and uneven across and within business sectors. A recent survey among financial institutions representing 30% of global market capitalisation value found that the three most cited barriers to greater uptake of nature-related risk assessment and management are: a) access to reliable data, b) access to reliable models and c) access to scenarios. This report brings greater clarity and coherence to the options by which businesses can measure and report on their interactions with nature, and signposts methods, metrics and policy tools are appropriate for the scope of business.

The Report authors emphasize that no single method to measure and manage impacts and dependencies is suitable for all business decisions - multiple methods or metrics will often be necessary. The Report proposes three overarching characteristics that can be used to assess methods that are most appropriate for any business, of any size or sector: coverage (geographic and the extent of impacts and dependencies included); accuracy (the degree to which results correctly describe what they are designed to measure); and responsiveness (the ability of the method to detect changes that can be attributed to the actions and activities of the business). 

Another key finding is that business could improve the measurement and management of impacts and dependencies through appropriate engagement with science and Indigenous and local knowledge. Scientific literature is not written for businesses and a lack of understanding and translation of scientific findings often hinder its uptake by businesses. There is also limited understanding and recognition of Indigenous Peoples and local communities as stewards of biodiversity and their role in its conservation, restoration and sustainable use. Industrial development threatens 60 per cent of Indigenous lands around the world and a quarter of all Indigenous territories are under high pressure from resource exploitation. However, Indigenous Peoples and local communities as well as the knowledge they hold are often inadequately represented in business analysis and decision-making.  

Sharing and better use of data, information, scientific insights and Indigenous and local knowledge can help foster better management of business risks and realise opportunities.

Enabling Environment Necessary for Business Action

Businesses often face inadequate or perverse incentives, barriers that hinder efforts to reverse nature’s decline, an institutional environment with insufficient support, enforcement and compliance, as well as significant gaps in data and knowledge. The Report finds clearly that fundamental change is possible and necessary to create an enabling environment that aligns what is profitable for business with what is beneficial for biodiversity and people. 

Priorities and Options for Business Action  

The Report makes it clear that all businesses, including financial institutions, have a responsibility to address their impacts and dependencies and could take further actions, given an enabling environment. Although trade-offs exist that prevent some transformative actions, the authors point to many actions that businesses can take now that benefit business and biodiversity – such as increasing efficiency and reducing waste and emissions.

The Report explores both actions that can be taken by businesses themselves and ‘signalling’ actions that can publicly influence and inspire action by others. Actions of each type can be pursued by businesses across four decision-making levels: corporate, operations, value-chain and portfolio.

The authors acknowledge that while there is a large existing knowledge base to guide action by businesses, there are also important gaps in knowledge and its application that constrain the ability of all actors to fully understand and effectively manage business activities. The Report groups these gaps as follows: business-relevant data; data accessibility and transparency; completeness of evidence; adoption of methods and applicability of methods – suggesting five sets of actions to address these priorities.  

Concrete Actions for Governments, Financial Actors & Civil Society  

The Report is clear that businesses cannot, by themselves, deliver the scale of change needed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.

The Report identifies five specific components that are central to an enabling environment:

• policy, legal and regulatory frameworks 
• economic and financial systems 
• social values, norms and culture 
• technology and data 
• capacity and knowledge 

The Report also provides more than 100 specific examples of concrete actions that can be taken, across each of these five components, by businesses, governments, financial actors and civil society.