Recognizing the important role of businesses in responding to the biodiversity crisis, IPBES is set to release their Business and Biodiversity Assessment, in which UNEP-WCMC has been centrally involved. 

Author: Elspeth Grace, Programme Officer, Nature Economy 

Nature loss is no longer a distant risk. Businesses, finance and society face direct consequences from the biodiversity crisis, exacerbated by climate change. Healthy ecosystems are central to business operations, providing raw materials like food and timber as well as regulating assets like water, climate and nutrients. Businesses rely on these contributions, while at the same time putting the ecosystems that supply them under pressure through pollution, land use change and unsustainable resource use. 

This week, experts from the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), are in Manchester, United Kingdom, for the plenary meeting of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). IPBES is a global body that brings together leading experts to deliver authoritative scientific assessments on biodiversity and ecosystem services. During the Plenary, governments from all parts of the world will be considering the Business and Biodiversity Assessment.  

The first-of-its-kind report, compiled over three years with inputs from over 80 experts, will set out direct actions that businesses can take to support the global biodiversity agenda. It highlights the best available evidence and approaches for businesses to understand their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity. A team of experts at UNEP-WCMC provided technical expertise and coordination support to IPBES throughout the Business and Biodiversity Assessment, including the UNEP-WCMC Chief Impact Officer serving as a co-chair to the assessment. UNEP-WCMC also contributed to much of the data, tools and guidance that the Assessment draws on. 

UNEP‑WCMC sits at the interface of global science, policy and business practice – and is uniquely positioned to help organizations move from ambition to action on nature. This blog explores key resources from UNEP-WCMC that helped shape the Business and Biodiversity Assessment, highlighting key outputs and areas of expertise from UNEP-WCMC that can help businesses and financial institutions understand and implement the Assessment’s recommendations. 

Addressing Business Impacts and Dependencies on Biodiversity  

Key chapters of the Assessment will focus on business dependencies and impacts on biodiversity, and the best approaches for measuring them. UNEP-WCMC’s work has long been at the forefront of defining and simplifying the best approaches to measuring dependencies and impacts for businesses and financial institutions.  

UNEP-WCMC provides tools and data to help businesses understand their interactions with biodiversity and reduce biodiversity-related physical and transition risks. Our work on the ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure) tool, alongside partners, is one example of our contributions to advancing nature-related assessments by the private sector. The tool helps financial institutions and businesses to screen portfolios and understand how dependencies and impacts translate into business risks. For companies moving onto more detailed analysis, the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) – a platform developed in partnership with UNEP-WCMC – allows companies to access interpret authoritative geospatial data sources.  

UNEP-WCMC help to clarify the best approaches for measurement of biodiversity impacts and dependencies, by working to align measurement frameworks and support businesses in navigating these. This includes guidance for businesses and financial institutions on the key components for businesses to measure their dependencies on biodiversity. To help businesses identify the best tools for their specific context, the Nature Tools Compass helps businesses to navigate the variety of approaches to screening and measuring ecosystem condition. We also engage with standard-setters, including through the ALIGN (Aligning Accounting Approaches for Nature) project, that compares different approaches to measuring biodiversity impacts and dependencies, in pursuit of greater alignment between these.  

Transformative change and the key role of business 

The Assessment will identify options for business action, exploring opportunities for businesses to drive transformative change. Action on biodiversity can unlock opportunities for businesses, strengthening resilience for long-term economic performance, alongside delivering social and environmental results. 

UNEP-WCMC’s Proteus partnership convenes businesses committed to delivering positive outcomes for biodiversity. Proteus provides science, data and global perspectives that enable companies to embed nature in their business strategies and decisions. We work directly with partner companies to apply leading interdisciplinary science into biodiversity management approaches across sites, value chains and landscapes. 

Addressing impacts and dependencies on biodiversity requires engagement by decision-makers across the entire business. The Every Job is a Nature Job series draws insights from leading businesses, providing actionable recommendations for key business functions (including procurement managers, business development managers and sustainability professionals) to integrate considerations of nature into their role.  

UNEP-WCMC identifies the data and tools that encourage actors in high-impact sectors to understand and act on biodiversity impacts and dependencies. The Trade, Development and Environment Hub (TRADE Hub) was a 5-year project completed in 2024, investigating ways to make trade sustainable for people and nature. UNEP-WCMC engaged with businesses and stakeholders, working to advance the sustainability of agricultural supply chains for social and environmental benefits.   

Working with policy, lenders and other sector actors, UNEP-WCMC supports an enabling environment for businesses to prioritize nature. UNEP-WCMC’s ‘Nature Action Dialogues’ is a 2-day conference, bringing together leaders across business, finance and conservation to foster collaboration and accelerate change to deliver benefits for nature. Targeted sessions focus on key issues around biodiversity, with attendees sharing their insights and best practices to tackle nature-related risks and dependencies and unlock opportunities.  

Engaging with government and private finance to drive change for biodiversity 

The Assessment will also highlight the significant roles of private finance, government and civil society in driving change across whole economies. UNEP-WCMC provides support to governments and private sector actors, to help them contribute to global goals and prioritise biodiversity. 

UNEP-WCMC’s report, ‘Mobilizing Finance for Biodiversity: The Private Finance Sector and the Implementation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs)’, highlights how private finance actors can support governments on delivery of their NBSAPs (roadmaps that countries have developed to achieve global biodiversity goals). The report also highlights actions which governments could take to mobilise more private finance support, drawing on insights from UNEP-WCMC’s technical experts, policymakers and financial institutions. As part of this project, UNEP-WCMC also developed country-specific NBSAPs factsheets, providing an overview of the opportunities for private finance actors to support biodiversity action in Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Mexico and the United Kingdom. 

UNEP-WCMC provides expertise across social, policy and economic domains, supported by authoritative biodiversity knowledge. In the Nature Transition Support Programme (NTSP), UNEP-WCMC supported partner governments in developing an evidence base on the economic consequences of biodiversity loss in their country. The project also helped identify the economic, social and environmental benefits of alternative development pathways that prioritise nature. Through engagement with partners, economic modelling and policy analysis, this project provided a pragmatic set of recommendations to help deliver transformative change. 

The Business and Biodiversity Assessment: Time to accelerate and scale action 

IPBES’ Business and Biodiversity Assessment is expected to make the message clear: business and finance have a pivotal role to play in halting and reversing biodiversity loss, and the approaches and data are already available to take action.UNEP-WCMC equips businesses and financial institutions with the data, tools and guidance needed to understand biodiversity impacts and dependencies, build a compelling business case, and embed nature across all strategies, roles and operations.  

Main image: By Grand Warszawski, Adobe Stock 1655083427