Measuring biodiversity impact, change and restoration opportunity for business

William L Geary, David Peter Wilkinson , Payal Bal, Diego Arias Rodriguez, Dale Wright, Sarah Bekessy, Katelyn Hamilton, Brendan Wintle

Most pressures that cause biodiversity loss are driven by economic activity. There is significant interest from the private sector in understanding impacts and dependencies of business activity on biodiversity. However, measuring the impacts of direct and indirect business activities on biodiversity, including species, at multiple scales remains a considerable challenge. There are no currently widely applicable measures that can map species-specific responses to pressures at a high spatial resolution across a broad range of scales. Here, we describe the Species Occurrence Index, a tractable and scalable measure for quantifying business impacts on nature, based on species distribution models. Using case studies, we demonstrate the use of the metric in understanding the direct impacts of a business and sector’s operations and how it can be used to guide nature positive protection and restoration actions. As private sector interest in biodiversity measures grows, so will demand for metrics that can scale between large, global scales (e.g. whole of investment portfolio, entire sectors) and local, context specific scales, while maintaining ecological realism. Our Species Occurrence Index allows businesses and sectors to estimate their total impact while also providing opportunities to deliver positive outcomes for biodiversity by ensuring businesses accurately account for and respond to their impacts on nature.