Biodiversity is “the variability among living organisms from all sources, including diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems” (Convention of Biological Diversity)
The definition above only begins to describe the complexity that is encompassed in the variety of life on Earth, including levels of biological organization - genes, species, ecosystems, scale-dependency - local, regional, vs. global, and relation to contrasting conservation objectives - taxonomic, phylogenetic, or functional diversity. As a consequence, there are many ways of characterizing biodiversity, none capturing all its intrinsic and anthropocentric values.
Furthermore, biodiversity needs to be conserved across scales to protect unique species and to preserve ecosystem functions important for human livelihoods and as a reservoir of biologically valuable properties for future challenges. This contrasts with the challenge of climate change, where the problem is defined in terms of equivalent units of carbon emissions with global impact.
Given the importance to disclose biodiversity impacts, a major challenge is to identify biodiversity metrics that that can serve as endpoints, accurately capturing its intrinsic and diverse anthropogenic values.
There are ongoing efforts to standardize biodiversity metrics. In impact assessments, the most used metrics are Mean Species Abundance (MSA), Potentially Disappearing Species (PDF) and local biodiversity Intactness Index (IEEP 2021).
In addition, there are questions on how to best reflect on conservation objectives, on the impact of functional biodiversity for the sake of nature´s contribution to people, as an enabler of ecosystem services and its importance for long-term resilience.
Benifits to society
BIOPATH will contribute to the preservation of biodiversity globally, regionally and locally, and thereby to the moral imperative of preserving biodiversity for its own sake (Convention Biological Diversity) as well as an enabler of ecological functions crucial for human wellbeing.
Ongoing declines of biodiversity (IPBES 2019) and biodiversity’s interaction with climate change makes this challenge more important than ever. BIOPATH’s major contribution will be to provide useful, attractive, and science-based approaches for an efficient integration of biodiversity considerations into the decision-making of industry, the financial system and public authorities, which in turn will lead to the transformative behavioural change essential to halt and restore biodiversity loss.
This may give biodiversity-conscious finance and business a competitive edge, because of a higher attractiveness of sustainable investments or price premiums on sustainable products. Ultimately, it will by significantly reducing threats to biodiversity, also contribute to reducing finance risks. BIOPATH responds to several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with direct impact on 9, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17.