IPBES Business and Biodiversity Report highlights collaboration needed to contribute towards global goals for nature

Representatives of the 150 member Governments of IPBES approved the Summary for Policy-Makers of the “IPBES Methodological assessment of the impact and dependence of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people”, known as the “Business and Biodiversity Assessment”, during the twelfth session of the IPBES Plenary. IUCN is an official observer to IPBES, and was represented by a small "One Programme” delegation at IPBES12. IUCN also co-organised the largest-ever Stakeholder Day, ahead of the main IPBES Plenary.

The report emphasises that all businesses depend on and impact biodiversity. It highlights that the failure to integrate the value of nature into economic and financial systems has led to its degradation, and now the decline in biodiversity is a critical systemic risk threatening the economy, financial stability and human wellbeing.

The report highlights practical solutions for businesses, including:

• Transparent, credible strategies to track impacts and dependencies on nature.
• Sector-specific metrics to measure biodiversity outcomes across value chains.
• Inclusive engagement with Indigenous Peoples and local communities, recognising their knowledge and rights.

The Business and Biodiversity Assessment is timely, following the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022 and with four years left to meet its 2030 targets. The Framework makes clear that delivering a Nature Positive future requires a whole of society approach – including the private sector – and includes a specific target on corporate disclosure. This means that companies and financial institutions are expected not just to mitigate their own negative impacts, but contribute towards global goals for nature – that is, to deliver nature positive outcomes.

“IUCN has been working over recent years to develop methods and metrics for supporting the private sector, and indeed all actors, in targeting, measuring progress towards, and ultimately delivering Rapid, High-Integrity, Nature-positive Outcomes, or IUCN RHINO,” said Martin Sneary, Director of IUCN's Business and Nature Team. “We are therefore pleased that the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment underscores the availability of comprehensive data, metrics, methodologies and practical tools. These resources equip policymakers and businesses to play a strategic role in advancing collective efforts towards ambitious global goals for nature.” 

IUCN RHINO builds from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and Red List of Ecosystems. It incorporates the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric, which quantifies how much specific actions in specific places, by companies or other actors, stand to contribute towards extinction risk reduction, as outlined in Goal A of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It is served through the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT), which is jointly governed by UNEP-WCMC, BirdLife International, Conservation International and IUCN.

The IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment also adds further momentum to implementation of the Resolution approved by IUCN Members during the 2025 IUCN World Conservation Congress, on "Defining a robust Nature Positive for Business framework, to mobilise corporate, civil society and government support for high-integrity nature positive contributions aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework".

IUCN engages with IPBES through disseminating the platform's calls for nominations across IUCN's 19,000 expert Commission members, and by sharing data based on IUCN Standards to IPBES’ processes. IUCN and partners are preparing data from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas, and the World Database on Protected and Conserved Areas to be ready for use by the authors of future IPBES assessments, notably the second Global Assessment. Moreover, for the last dozen years, IUCN has supported the implementation of the IPBES stakeholder engagement strategy.

"IUCN is particularly well-placed to advance stakeholder engagement in IPBES," said Ernesto Herrera, Chair of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy, Executive Director of the IUCN Member NGO Reforestamos, Member of AMEBIN (the Mexican Alliance for Business and Biodiversity), and a member of the IUCN delegation to IPBES12. "This encompasses academic networks through IUCN's expert Commissions, Indigenous Peoples and local communities through IUCN's Indigenous Peoples’ Organisation Membership, and the private sector through IUCN's corporate partnerships."

IUCN's engagement with IPBES has been generously supported by the Government of France.