Examine exposure to physical and transitional biodiversity risks of the operations.
Map the institution’s exposure to physical and transitional biodiversity risks to allow for long-term planning and resilience building. Institutions can make use of tools such as LEAP developed by the Task-Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, The Biodiversity Footprint Financial Institutions, The Natural Capital Protocol or ENCORE to assess and disclose risk at the project and portfolio level.
Educate staff and investors on biodiversity.
Invest in internal capacity building to ensure that biodiversity considerations are holistically integrated throughout the organization and the project cycle. Subjects that are relevant to cover for all staff include a definition of biodiversity, the main threats against biodiversity, impacts and dependencies of the company and existing tools and procedures related to biodiversity.
Educate clients on biodiversity considerations and reporting.
Clients and recipients of financing need to be equipped to handle biodiversity considerations in projects at the planning, implementation, and evaluation stage. Initiatives such as The Biodiversity Pilot Programme by Nefco can support the type of collaborative learning required for these types of processes.
Develop or adopt biodiversity safeguard framework/action plan for the operations.
A well-defined biodiversity safeguard framework will help identify, clarify and disclose how considerations to biodiversity are included in the company´s operations.
Integrate and combine biodiversity and climate considerations in financing activities.
Analyse synergies and trade-offs between climate and biodiversity impacts as part of the project screening. Consider ecosystem-based approaches and nature-based solutions that, based on scientific evidence, can create synergistic outcomes.
Focus financing activities directly towards nature-positive outcomes.
Make biodiversity benefits an inherent part of financing targets instead of an add-on. Direct investments in nature needs to be increased, and the pace needs to be accelerated. The economic value of biodiversity is significant, and acting sooner will reduce the need for future investments in mitigation of biodiversity loss. A concrete way to finance biodiversity protection is to submit green bonds directly targeted at biodiversity benefits, which will be more attainable with the new European Green Bond Standard.
Change the assessment horizons of financing to better include the long-term perspective of biodiversity impacts.
Biodiversity effects and impacts of activities are both slow and complex and do not fit within a project cycle of a few years. In order to perform sufficient biodiversity evaluation, monitoring and evaluation procedures need to be redesigned.
Create partnerships between finance and biodiversity actors.
Financial institutions can at a larger degree make use of expertise from the environmental, nature, and biodiversity sectors, through partnerships and knowledge sharing. In addition to building new partnerships, institutions can take active part in platforms such as the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, the Partnership for Biodiversity Accounting Financials, The Align Project, BIOFIN and NatureFinance.