Managing Biodiversity Through Stakeholder Involvement: Why, Who, and for What Initiatives?

Abstract

The increasing pressures to conserve biodiversity-particularly for industries based on the exploitation of natural resources-have reinforced the need to implement specific measures in this area. Corporate commitment to preserving biodiversity is increasingly scrutinized by stakeholders and now represents an important aspect of business ethics. Although stakeholder involvement is often essential to the management of biodiversity, very few studies in the literature have focused on the details of this involvement. The objective of this paper is to analyze how mining and forestry companies can manage biodiversity issues through stakeholder involvement based on a content analysis of 430 sustainability reports using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. The paper elucidates the reasons for such involvement, the nature of stakeholders involved, and the types of measures employed to manage biodiversity. Stakeholders' motives for becoming involved revolve around four main issues: complexity and knowledge management; self-regulation and relationships with public authorities; legitimacy and social responsiveness; and commercial and strategic objectives. The stakeholders involved in biodiversity initiatives are essentially non-governmental organizations, experts and universities, public authorities, and coalitions of companies. In the end, the initiatives identified can be grouped into three categories: management practices, socio-political actions, and research and conservation measures. The paper provides various examples of these initiatives and shows how they can be implemented in collaboration with different stakeholders depending on the company's objectives. The contributions the study makes to the literature on biodiversity management and the managerial implications of the study are analyzed in the discussion section.

Integrating corporate social responsibility into conservation policy. The example of business commitments to contribute to the French National Biodiversity Strategy

“…Companies were found to extensively interact with stakeholders, highlighting the collaborative nature of biodiversity-oriented CSR practices. Our results thus comfort the idea that stakeholders are used as a positive lever by companies to manage biodiversity issues (Boiral and Heras-Saizarbitoria, 2017b;Overbeek et al, 2013). Furthermore, the analysis suggests that stakeholders from the territorial system, the value chain and the institutional system are involved at various degrees in the different categories of CSR practices.…”

“…The most frequently cited stakeholder categories in the ecological management literature are environmental NGOs, experts and academics, public authorities and industry coalitions (Barkemeyer et al, 2015;Boiral and Heras-Saizarbitoria, 2017b;Overbeek et al, 2013). The concept of action arena is used in this study to identify patterns of stakeholders' involvement in the implementation of biodiversityoriented CSR practices.…”

“…There is thus a need to undertake a trans-sectoral review of business initiatives and to develop a comprehensive framework to classify and interpret them in a consistent manner (Winn and Pogutz, 2013). Several studies have pointed out that stakeholders involvement was crucial in the implementation of corporate practices related to biodiversity conservation, notably because of their complexity and the need for business to comfort the legitimacy of such measures (Boiral and Heras-Saizarbitoria, 2017b;Overbeek and Harms, 2011;Reade et al, 2014). The collective nature of biodiversity-oriented CSR practices thus seems to be an important parameter to take into account if contribution of businesses to biodiversity conservation is to be fostered.…”

Managerial Views of Corporate Impacts and Dependencies on Ecosystem Services: A Case of International and Domestic Forestry Companies in China

“…in the context of forest industry, Boiral et al, 2015;Brody et al, 2006;Dyke et al, 2005;Tuppura et al, 2013Tuppura et al, , 2015. This area of research has been especially influenced by the increasing role of external stakeholders in defining corporate goals, providing legitimacy for corporate actions and social licence to operate (Dare et al, 2014;Freeman, 1984).…”

Lan arriskuen prebentzioak behar al du estandar pribaturik? ISO 45001 estandarra aztergai

“…MSSak borondatezko kode, jarraibide edo prozedurak dira, izaera oso ezberdineko kudeaketa jarduerak formalizatu, sistematizatu eta legitimatzeko en-presek erabiltzen dituztenak (Boiral eta Heras-Saizarbitoria, 2015). MSS hauek produktu edo prozesu jakinek bete beharreko eskakizun tekniko eta arauengandik desberdindu behar dira.…”