Department of Zoology, Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
Department of Food and Resource Economics, Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Conserv Biol. 2019 Apr;33(2):307-318. doi: 10.1111/cobi.13190. Epub 2018 Oct 5.
Biodiversity declines threaten the sustainability of global economies and societies. Acknowledging this, businesses are beginning to make commitments to account for and mitigate their influence on biodiversity and report this in sustainability reports. We assessed the top 100 of the 2016 Fortune 500 Global companies' (the Fortune 100) sustainability reports to gauge the current state of corporate biodiversity accountability. Almost half (49) of the Fortune 100 mentioned biodiversity in reports, and 31 made clear biodiversity commitments, of which only 5 were specific, measureable, and time bound. A variety of biodiversity-related activities were disclosed (e.g., managing impacts, restoring biodiversity, and investing in biodiversity), but only 9 companies provided quantitative indicators to verify the magnitude of their activities (e.g., area of habitat restored). No companies reported quantitative biodiversity outcomes, making it difficult to determine whether business actions were of sufficient magnitude to address impacts and were achieving positive outcomes for nature. Conservation science can advance approaches to corporate biodiversity accountability by helping businesses make science-based biodiversity commitments, develop meaningful indicators, and select more targeted activities to address business impacts. With the biodiversity policy super year of 2020 rapidly approaching, now is the time for conservation scientists to engage with and support businesses in playing a critical role in setting the new agenda for a sustainable future for the planet with biodiversity at its heart.
生物多样性的减少威胁着全球经济和社会的可持续性。认识到这一点，企业开始承诺核算并减轻其对生物多样性的影响，并在可持续发展报告中对此进行报告。我们评估了 2016 年《财富》全球 500 强（《财富》100 强）中排名前 100 位的公司的可持续发展报告，以评估企业生物多样性核算的现状。近一半（49%）的《财富》100 强公司在报告中提到了生物多样性，31 家公司明确做出了生物多样性承诺，其中只有 5 家是具体的、可衡量的和有时限的。报告披露了各种与生物多样性相关的活动（例如，管理影响、恢复生物多样性和投资于生物多样性），但只有 9 家公司提供了量化指标来验证其活动的规模（例如，恢复的栖息地面积）。没有公司报告量化的生物多样性结果，因此难以确定企业的行动是否足以应对影响，以及是否为自然带来了积极的结果。保护科学可以通过帮助企业做出基于科学的生物多样性承诺、制定有意义的指标以及选择更有针对性的活动来应对业务影响，从而推进企业生物多样性核算的方法。随着 2020 年这个“生物多样性政策超级年”的临近，现在是保护科学家与企业合作并支持它们的时候了，让企业在为地球制定新的可持续发展议程方面发挥关键作用，使生物多样性成为核心。
