IPBES launches new assessment on business impacts and dependencies on biodiversity

Manchester, United Kingdom – The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) concluded its twelfth session yesterday in Manchester, UK. During the meeting, delegates approved the Summary for Policymakers of the Business and Biodiversity Assessment Report and reached agreement on several decisions of interest to FAO’s mandate and activities.

Businesses are central to halting and reversing biodiversity loss  

IPBES launched a new methodological assessment of the impacts and dependencies of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people – known as the “Business and Biodiversity Report”. The methodological assessment reviews and critically evaluates approaches for measuring impacts and dependencies of businesses on biodiversity and discusses how such information can be used to improve outcomes for biodiversity and ecosystem services. The assessment also discusses the role of multiple actors in creating an enabling environment, options for biodiversity-positive private sector engagement as well as opportunities for governments to foster such engagement. 

The report finds that: 

• Businesses are central to halting and reversing biodiversity loss, but that many often lack information to address their impacts and dependencies, as well as the risks and opportunities relating to biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people.
• All businesses across all sectors have impacts on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people, including through their value chains, with available estimates identifying agriculture, forestry and fishing; electricity, energy; mining and quarrying; construction; and transportation and storage as sectors having relatively high quantified direct impacts.
• Several concrete actions can be taken. It provides more than 100 specific examples, across businesses, governments, financial actors and civil society. 
• A wide range of methods, knowledge and data exist for measuring business impacts and dependencies, which can already inform decisions and action, but they are mainly applied to assessing impacts than to measuring dependencies. 
• The application and uptake of methods is found to be low and uneven across and within business sectors and locales, with less than 1% of publicly reporting companies mentioning their impacts on biodiversity in their reports. 

"By effectively assessing and managing their relationship with nature, businesses can strengthen their resilience, drive innovation, and establish themselves as leaders in the global economy," highlighted FAO Director-General QU Dongyu in a video address welcoming the assessment. "Every business along the value chain has a role in advancing sustainable practices that support biodiversity. Key actions include scaling up investments in innovative, biodiversity-friendly technologies across production, processing, distribution and consumption, as well as implementing robust systems to monitor and report the impacts of their business operations. As a UN Collaborative Partner of IPBES, FAO supports agrifood businesses in enhancing their biodiversity performance, meeting recognized standards, and conducting risk‑based due diligence." FAO Director-General concluded, "This new IPBES assessment offers a timely analysis of such measures, providing crucial data for decision-makers dedicated to building agrifood systems that are more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable."

Key IPBES 12 decisions  

Delegates to IPBES 12 also reviewed a range of issues, some presenting opportunities for FAO engagement, and agreed that: 

• A proposal for the nature, topics, and timing of future deliverables across work programme objectives would be prepared for IPBES 13, with suggestions to focus on biodiversity interlinkages with pollution, poverty, cities, or climate change, among others. 

• An additional review of the Summary for Policymakers and chapters of the methodological assessments on monitoring biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people and on integrated biodiversity‑inclusive spatial planning and ecological connectivity would take place before the two assessments are considered at IPBES 13. 
• IPBES 13 will be held in the second half of 2027 and IPBES 14 in the second half of 2028. Offers from members to host the sessions are yet to be received. 

About IPBES and FAO 

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent intergovernmental body established in 2012. IPBES is often referred to as the IPCC for biodiversity. It provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments about the state of knowledge regarding the planet’s biodiversity, its ecosystems and the benefits they provide to people, as well as the tools and methods needed to protect and sustainably use these vital natural resources. Its mission is to strengthen knowledge foundations for better policy through science, for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development.  

FAO, together with UNDP, UNEP and UNESCO, is part of a collaborative partnership agreement with IPBES, whereby it supports IPBES work plan and functions in accordance with their respective mandates. As highlighted by Kaveh Zahedi, FAO Assistant Director-General and Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment, in his remarks at the opening of the Plenary, IPBES 12 marks a decade of strong collaboration between the UN partners and IPBES. The tenth progress report on the UN collaborative partnership arrangement, made available to IPBES 12, details concrete achievements, such as strengthened support to countries through initiatives like FAO’s Agri-NBSAPs Support Initiative.