A call for tools, methodologies or resources in relation to biodiversity

Have you developed a tool, methodology or resource that can help business measure, account for and/or value biodiversity within natural capital assessments? If so, the Natural Capital Coalition would like to hear from you!

The Natural Capital Coalition is running a project with the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI), a collaboration between the University of Cambridge and leading biodiversity-focused conservation organisations, to strengthen the way in which the Natural Capital Protocol (the Protocol) addresses biodiversity.

Why?

The Protocol recognises the importance of biodiversity as an underlying component of natural capital and the challenges in capturing the specific values of biodiversity. These challenges were underlined by the public consultation to the Protocol where concerns were raised that biodiversity and its relationship to natural capital was insufficiently covered. There was a perception that not enough attention was given to non-financial values and that, ultimately, companies could struggle to manage or recognise impacts and dependencies on biodiversity as a result. The pilot studies to the Protocol supported this. Although most stated the guidance was sufficient with respect to biodiversity, in practice the focus was on the more tangible relationships with water and carbon and none included impacts or dependencies on biodiversity as part of their assessment.  As a result, the effectiveness of natural capital assessment to identify and manage risks and opportunities may be impaired.

The project is seeking to deliver more robust and biodiversity-inclusive natural capital assessments, by developing guidance on biodiversity to complement and support the Protocol.

What are we looking for?

Whilst we are aware of large amounts of work, particularly around business impacts on biodiversity, extensive stakeholder consultations have specifically highlighted the need for guidance to enable businesses to assess and value biodiversity impacts and dependence in a consistent way within natural capital assessments. Simple indicator(s)/metric(s) to measure biodiversity alongside other components of natural capital have also been requested.

As a result, this call is specifically focussed on the integration of biodiversity into natural capital assessments.

We are calling for contributions of tools, methodologies and/or resources that are being used or could be used to measure, account for and/or value biodiversity within natural capital assessments. These will be used to inform the production of an associated guidance document.

In order to align with the format of the Protocol, all contributions must address at least one of the following components:

  • Identifying business impacts and dependencies on biodiversity
  • Carrying out a materiality assessment that specifically considers biodiversity impact and or dependence
  • Measuring and valuing business interactions with biodiversity
  • Valuing biodiversity to inform business management and decision-making

Tools, methodologies and/or resources, may be in the form of text, tables, decision-trees, models including algorithms, diagrams or other.

Tools, methodologies and/or resources, should be applicable to businesses in any sector, or have the potential to be transferable or to become generic. Similarly, they should have the potential to apply to businesses operating in any geographical location.

Please do not feel the need to re-submit materials that you have already provided in response to previous calls as we will review methods captured in the Natural Capital Toolkit. However, we welcome any updates or additional details that can be provided to supplement previous submissions, along with case studies on the application and the benefits of including biodiversity in a natural capital assessment.

How will the review process work?

All submitted tools, methodologies and/or resources will be subject to review by a highly qualified panel of experts to assess how they support the Protocol in delivering biodiversity inclusive natural capital assessments. Please do state if any tools, methodologies and/or resources submitted are proprietary or confidential.

Any tools, methodologies and/or resources selected will receive appropriate recognition. Your organisation will be invited to provide clarifications in relation to the use of your contributed materials, to ensure appropriate referencing and application of the materials submitted, and to review the final document produced.

If you are interested in submitting a tool, methodology and/or resource please contact us with your material before 14 September 2018. We look forward to receiving all potential contributions and growing the technical foundations of the Natural Capital Protocol on biodiversity.

 

Submit a tool, method or resource

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