As the global community rallies to meet the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s ambitious goals for 2030 and beyond, a new comprehensive study highlights the critical role and current challenges that tools designed for private sector biodiversity disclosure face in tracking corporate impacts on nature.
The study, led by conservation and academic experts from the University of Cambridge, BirdLife International, Fauna and Flora International and the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) Partnership, evaluated 129 biodiversity-related tools listed by leading disclosure frameworks like the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN). These tools aim to help companies measure, disclose, and ultimately reduce their risks and impacts on ecosystems and species worldwide, to achieve Target 15 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).
Key insights from the study reveal that while a broad selection of tools exists—from online software and spatial mapping layers to comprehensive biodiversity databases—only 13 tools provide fine-scale data critical for assessing impacts on individual species, a necessary level of detail to drive meaningful action. Most tools rely heavily on global ecosystem maps or generic biodiversity layers, which, though useful, fall short in tracking the threats facing specific vulnerable species or precise ecosystems.
Read the full paper here: An evaluation of tools being promoted to help the private sector disclose its impacts on biodiversity