The Biodiversity Indicators for Site-based Impacts project is a joint initiative between UNEP-WCMC, Conservation International and Fauna & Flora International, with support from IPIECA and the Proteus Partnership. The project developed and tested a methodology for aggregating biodiversity impact/benefit and performance data at a site level to provide indicators of biodiversity management performance at the corporate level that meets the needs of companies with site-based impacts. It has been developed to link to, and be complementary with, existing efforts to identify corporate indicators, in consultation with industry.

The primary users of this methodology are anticipated to be corporate and site-level environmental experts within businesses to monitor risks or benefits associated with the impact on biodiversity and management response. While this methodology was designed with the energy and mining sector in mind, it is applicable for any sector in which companies have significant site-level impacts upon biodiversity (e.g. agriculture). By setting out a clear methodology for indicator identification, this will be a first step in addressing the need to standardise how biodiversity performance is measured and reported across businesses.

The methodology consists of the following three stages:

• Stage 1 Biodiversity significance screening: screening of the company’s portfolio of operations to identify sites with potentially high biodiversity significance, based on globally available datasets combined with site validation to identify high significance sites for management prioritisation
• Stage 2 Site-level indicator framework: defining of site-level biodiversity indicators using the state-pressure-response (SPR) framework, based on a three-step assessment of 1) globally and 2) locally available datasets and 3) discussions with site-level personnel ideally based on site-level monitoring for high significance sites; and
• Stage 3 Aggregating indicators to corporate level: aggregation of scores for SPR at site level up to the business unit, division and corporate level to provide insight into performance on the ground (under development).

Version 3.2 of the methodology incorporates the results of piloting with seven energy and mining companies. A further iteration of the methodology will be produced later in 2020 following piloting of the third stage on aggregation to incorporate guidance and to ensure the methodology can support application across a company’s portfolio.

The Biodiversity Indicators for Site-based Impacts methodology is one of >12 corporate biodiversity measurement approaches considered under the Aligning Biodiversity Measures for Business collaboration.