Why biodiversity matters and how SBTN helps

Biodiversity loss is a material business risk. It disrupts the essential ecosystem services companies depend on – such as clean water, pollination, and pest management – and threatens value chains and financial performance. Companies are also facing growing regulatory and stakeholder scrutiny to understand and act on their impacts and dependencies on nature – including biodiversity.

SBTN helps companies take credible, science-based action to address these risks by targeting the main drivers of biodiversity loss including land use change, freshwater pollution and over-exploitation.

In the places where species and ecosystems are most vulnerable, companies set targets to reduce the pressures they can control, while also improving their overall impacts on nature; enabling measurable contributions to nature recovery and aligning with global goals. With SBTN, companies move from intent to impact, turning biodiversity ambition into action.

Biodiversity is a core component of nature, along with the abiotic elements (such as the water in freshwater and marine systems, the soil, and the atmosphere). It can be viewed through multiple lenses, each intricately dependent on the others: genes, species, ecosystems, and nature’s contributions to people (NCP).

As it cannot be understood using a single metric, we also focus on indicators which capture progress on specific drivers of biodiversity loss which companies impact rather than one aggregate indicator.

Our guidance addresses threats to species, ecosystems, and nature’s contributions to people (NCP) but does not currently cover genetic diversity.

How SBTN enables action for biodiversity

SBTN provides the first science-based targets for nature- focused on land, freshwater, and ocean – that address the main drivers of biodiversity loss – as determined by the IPBES assessment – by reducing negative corporate environmental impacts and increasing positive ones.

Our approach helps companies:

Identify where action is most needed using biodiversity data on ecological importance and vulnerability.
Set targets where they matter most to reduce pressures they can control – such as land conversion and freshwater pollution – and improve their overall impacts on nature.
Create conditions for biodiversity recovery by bringing pressures within scientifically defined safe limits.

Through measurable and credible actions, this gives companies a way to operationalize the ambition of contributing to nature positive outcomes, – aligned with global societal goals like the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Driving measurable action on biodiversity (click to enlarge image)

How biodiversity considerations are integrated throughout our guidance

Biodiversity is incorporated in the initial steps of target-setting: the environmental impact assessment and the prioritization of target setting in locations of critical importance for biodiversity.

The materiality screening (Step 1a) uses biological resource use and ecosystem conversion, while the value chain assessment (Step 1b) requires estimation of several biodiversity-related indicators. These indicators include pressures of (terrestrial) ecosystem conversion and sourcing of threatened and trade-regulated species, as well as state of nature indicators such as species extinction risk, species endemism, ecosystem integrity and condition, ecosystem connectivity, NCP, and delineated areas of biodiversity importance.

Step 2b uses these biodiversity indicators to inform the location ranking that is itself the basis of the Step 2c prioritization process.
Freshwater targets

Although the Step 3 Freshwater methods do not explicitly cover biodiversity indicators, biodiversity considerations are embedded within the thresholds that inform the target ambition levels for both the water quantity and quality targets. Namely, the quantity targets ensure the maintenance of environmental flows, and the quality targets ensure the avoidance of eutrophication, both of which incorporate the needs of certain freshwater species and ecosystems.
Land targets

Our first land targets also support biodiversity by comprehensively addressing land use change and habitat loss, as well as unsustainable patterns and practices of land use, which are among the primary drivers of biodiversity loss globally.

For example:

Within the Step 3 Land methods, the No Conversion of Natural Ecosystem targets account for ecosystem integrity and condition in the definition of natural lands, and refer to the importance of different regions, such as in the delivery of NCP and the preservation of threatened ecosystems and species when determining the target year.

The Land Footprint Reduction targets contribute to biodiversity by increasing the land available to restore natural habitats.

The Landscape Engagement targets afford companies the flexibility to propose the most relevant biodiversity indicators for the local context, for example for ecosystem integrity.
Ocean targets

The ocean targets are the first science-based targets to address direct resource exploitation – the highest impact driver of biodiversity loss in the ocean – through the “avoid and reduce overexploitation” target. This target focuses on wild fisheries, helping companies in avoiding sourcing from overexploited stocks and engaging in seascapes and jurisdictions to improve stock health and reduce overfishing.

The stock health indicator of the Avoid and Reduce Overexploitation target measures the effective population size of commercial fish species, and is therefore a direct indicator for biodiversity.

The Protect Structural Habitats target contributes both directly and indirectly to biodiversity by addressing direct pressures like pollution and marine ecosystem use & change while also promoting engaging in improvements to habitat protection and restoration in seascapes and jurisdictions.

The Reduce Risks to Endangered, Threatened, and Protected Marine Species target contributes to biodiversity by addressing the indirect impacts of direct exploitation and marine ecosystem use & change on non-target species that are already threatened and vulnerable, particularly by monitoring indicators of population size and health.
Our strategic focus is on developing further guidance to expand the biodiversity coverage across our target-setting process. This evolution includes expanding our metrics and safeguards to encompass critical issues such as species overexploitation and invasive species, areas where our current methods are evolving based on advancing scientific knowledge.

We will soon publish a comprehensive overview detailing SBTN’s approach to biodiversity, outlining pathways to integrate new metrics, indicators, and safeguards.

Potential pathways include, for example:

Changes to the methods for Step 1: Assess and Step 2: Interpret & Prioritize will improve the selection and coverage of biodiversity indicators used in the value chain assessment and in the ranking and prioritization processes. Biodiversity will also play a more important role in determining the landscape selection for the Landscape Engagement target and the model selection to support Freshwater target setting.

The Step 3 Land methods (V2) will embed biodiversity indicators in the thresholds that inform target ambition levels (in the way that the Freshwater methods currently do). Potential indicators include natural vegetation cover and indicators related to soil condition.

Targets mirroring the Landscape Engagement target may be developed soon for both the freshwater and ocean realms. In the medium to long term, SBTN will explore issues such as ecosystem fragmentation and connectivity for both freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, as well as invasive species, particularly in the freshwater and ocean realms.

The SBTN methods currently available and under development focus on pressure-based targets linked with avoidance and reduction actions. Biodiversity state-based targets, including for species extinction risk and ecosystem integrity and condition, are an area of ongoing exploration and may be developed in the future.

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