Biodiversity

Subject

Biodiversity (biological diversity) is defined as a variability among living organisms on the earth, including the variability within and between species, and within and between ecosystems.

International community saw the need for a stronger mobilization around nature across the whole world, and a greater understanding of the organization’s footprint on nature and actions that can be taken to regulate that footprint. The UN endorsed a stronger focus on nature to develop a common approach to integrating biodiversity and nature-based solutions for sustainable development into a corporate goal of all mature organisations.

‘Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century. It must be the top, top priority for everyone, everywhere.’

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, ‘The State of the Planet’ address, New York, December 2020

Applied standards

ISO/FDIS 17298 defines requirements and guidelines to help organisations understanding and mainstreaming biodiversity’s protection, conservation, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, within their activities.

This standard is suitable for all kind of organisations (e.g. economic operators, national or local governments, inter-governmental organizations, public or private organizations, financial institutions, development organizations, civil society organizations and specialists) and can be used at different scales if needed (e.g. local scales such as a production site or municipalities, as well as a larger scales such as a corporate / entire group level or by a regional public organisations).

This standard is applicable to all activities of any organisations (including projects and operations), from site direct operations (including land-holding) to entire value chains or their sphere of influence (including relationship inside or outside the value chain, e.g: formal or information associations in which the organisation is involved, peer organisations, competitors …). While this standard is aligned with current regulations and standards, it can be used as a standalone by organisations and without prior knowledge, actions or strategies of biodiversity.

This standard ensures robustness of organisations’ strategic approaches to biodiversity in terms of the method used to define it, its content, and its implementation. It is built on latest available data and knowledge and sets best practices for organisations. This standard provides guidance on identifying organisation-specific dependencies and impacts on biodiversity, prioritizing them, setting ambitions and goals, and defining coherent actions to mitigate impacts on biodiversity. It also sets requirements regarding governance of the strategic approach for biodiversity, engagement of stakeholders, and communication.

Note: ISO/FDIS 17298 is under development, on the final stage of formal approval by ISO/TC 331.

Our services

The SSA is planning to provides high quality services of Certification of organisation towards Biodiversity based on ISO 17298 (after this standards will be officially approved and published). The service will include a complex of onsite and off-site assessment of data on Biodiversity incorporation into the company’s strategy and operations.