From Footprints to Handprints? Principles for Assessing an Organisation’s Positive Impacts on Biodiversity

Charlotte Maddinson , Essi Karoliina Pykäläinen , Krista Pokkinen, Ulla Helimo, Sami El Geneidy, Thomas B White, Joseph W Bull, Janne Kotiaho

Organisations are a major driver of biodiversity loss, but may also have positive impacts on biodiversity. Limited guidance exists for how positive biodiversity impacts should be quantified, presenting a risk to organisations and biodiversity more widely. Here we introduce the ‘biodiversity handprint’ framework, enabling organisations to measure and communicate the additional positive contributions that they create for biodiversity beyond their responsibility to reduce harm. We establish ten guiding principles for assessing biodiversity handprints, building upon previous literature on environmental handprints and biodiversity offsetting. Overall, biodiversity handprints can be a useful tool for organisations to assess and report their positive impacts, albeit with large uncertainties. While biodiversity handprints may motivate and support progress towards global biodiversity goals, management of negative biodiversity impacts remains paramount.