Are corporate biodiversity commitments consistent with delivering ‘nature-positive’ outcomes? A review of ‘nature-positive’ definitions, company progress and challenges

Achieving a nature- and people-positive future

“…Conservation campaigns have tended to insufficiently address complexities in natural systems, 13,41 lack sufficient assessment of impact, 21 focus on nature outcomes over social outcomes, 22,42,43 inadequately address inclusion of diverse perspectives and worldviews in their formulation, 10,30,43,44 inadequately address inequities and responsibilities for historical loss, 22,45 and risk being used as an umbrella for incomplete actions. 40,46 We focus on a dominant narrative in the run-up to COP15 in December 2022, on ''nature positive,'' 33 to illustrate the pitfalls facing implementation of the GBF, and to contribute new insights on where to raise the ambition and transformational nature of current campaigns to support the strongest possible implementation of the GBF. The stakes are higher than ever, not just because the state of nature is worse than at the start of each previous decadal plan, with unprecedented extinction rates 10,47 and proximity to biosphere tipping points, 48,49 but also because the GBF sets goals for 30 years, compared to 10 for its predecessors.…”

Principles for using evidence to improve biodiversity impact mitigation by business

“…Similarly, several large finance bodies have developed safeguarding principles requiring businesses to measure and address negative biodiversity impacts (Equator Principles, 2020; IFC, 2012). An increasing number of businesses are now pledging, and setting targets, to address biodiversity loss (de Silva et al, 2019; zu Ermgassen, Howard, et al, 2022), often as part of industry groups such as Finance for Biodiversity, Business for Nature and Act4Nature. Much work is now being channelled into helping develop appropriate targets and strategies (Maron et al, 2021; science‐based targets for nature), as well as metrics and indicators to measure the impact of business activities on biodiversity (Addison et al, 2020; Lammerant et al, 2018).…”

“…More recently, companies have been setting out ‘nature positive’ goals which are deployed in a wider array of sectors with less tangible impacts on biodiversity (zu Ermgassen, Howard, et al, 2022). This momentum has been built upon by the science‐based targets network, which have expanded the Mitigation Hierarchy framework to help address impacts across value chains, and includes proactive conservation actions (termed transformative actions) that business can take to restore biodiversity (Milner‐Gulland et al, 2021; Science Based Targets Network, 2020).…”

“…A recent evaluation has demonstrated that there has been little progress in the quality and robustness of businesses' biodiversity commitments from 2016 to 2021, with the number of firms from the Global Fortune 100 reporting specific, measurable and time‐bound biodiversity targets rising from just 5 to 10 over that time (Addison et al, 2019; zu Ermgassen, Howard, et al., 2022). The lack of scientific robustness in biodiversity target setting prevents firms being held accountable for their biodiversity performance, so vastly improved target setting and reporting principles are required.…”

Short‐term solutions to biodiversity conservation in portfolio construction: Forward‐looking disclosure and classification‐based metrics

“…While the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures Report (TNFD, 2021(TNFD, , 2022 has begun to offer direction, there are no broadly accepted methods, indicators, or guidelines for the financial valuation of biodiversity impacts or risks (Stephenson, 2019), without which investors cannot assess biodiversity management performance or practices (Addison et al, 2020;de Silva et al, 2019;zu Ermgassen, Howard, et al, 2022) Substantial research is needed to create new data or uplift/ combine existing data so that they are fit for the purpose of guiding investments and to design asset-based biodiversity metrics that are appropriate for portfolio construction. The mitigation hierarchy provides a framework for implementing biodiversity-positive investment strategy (Arlidge et al, 2018;Milner-Gulland et al, 2021).…”