Biodiversity Risk for Businesses
- NOTOC**
Biodiversity Risk for Businesses
Biodiversity loss is increasingly recognized as a material business and financial risk rather than solely an environmental concern. Companies depend directly and indirectly on functioning ecosystems for water, food, raw materials, soil fertility, pollination, climate regulation, flood protection and many other ecosystem services. When these natural systems deteriorate, the consequences can spread through corporate operations, supply chains, financial markets and entire economies.
Research on biodiversity and business increasingly distinguishes among physical, transition and systemic nature-related risks. Physical risks arise when ecosystem degradation directly affects resources or services upon which businesses depend. Transition risks emerge as governments, consumers, investors and markets respond to biodiversity loss through new regulations, conservation policies, disclosure requirements and changing expectations. Systemic risks occur when ecological deterioration becomes sufficiently widespread to affect economic activity, financial stability and interconnected markets.
The growing recognition of these risks is changing corporate strategy, investment analysis, banking, insurance, governance and sustainability reporting. Businesses are increasingly being encouraged to identify where they interact with nature, measure their dependencies and impacts, determine which exposures are financially material and incorporate biodiversity into mainstream risk-management and strategic planning.
Business Dependence on Nature
Every economy ultimately depends on natural systems, but the degree and form of dependence vary substantially among industries and individual companies. Agriculture depends on soil health, water availability, pollination and climatic stability. Food and beverage companies depend on agricultural commodities and reliable water supplies. Forestry relies directly on functioning forest ecosystems, while fisheries and marine transportation depend on healthy aquatic environments.
Construction, mining, energy and infrastructure companies can face significant exposure through land conversion, resource extraction, water use and ecosystem disturbance. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies may depend on biological and genetic resources. Apparel companies face biodiversity-related risks through agricultural fibers, water consumption, chemical pollution and global supply chains.
Even businesses without obvious direct connections to nature can have substantial indirect dependencies through suppliers, customers, financing, insurance, infrastructure and commodity markets. Because these relationships are often geographically dispersed, biodiversity risk can remain hidden until an ecosystem disruption causes shortages, cost increases, production delays or other financial consequences.
Location therefore matters greatly in biodiversity assessment. Two facilities operating in the same industry may face very different nature-related risks depending on local water conditions, ecosystem sensitivity, protected areas, land-use pressures and the ecological state of surrounding landscapes.
Physical and Operational Risks
Physical biodiversity risks arise when the degradation of ecosystems reduces the availability or reliability of services used by businesses. Deforestation, declining soil quality, water pollution, water scarcity, habitat destruction, species decline and ecosystem instability can affect production and increase operating costs.
Businesses dependent on agricultural production may experience lower yields or greater volatility when pollinators decline, soils degrade or water systems become stressed. Companies relying on freshwater can face disruption when watersheds deteriorate or pollution reduces usable water supplies. Coastal businesses, infrastructure owners, insurers and property markets may become more vulnerable when mangroves, wetlands and other natural protective systems are degraded.
Nature-related risks can also propagate through supply chains. A business may have little direct ecological exposure at its own facilities while depending heavily on suppliers operating in environmentally sensitive regions. Biodiversity risk affecting suppliers can therefore result in shortages, price volatility, transportation disruptions and reduced supply-chain resilience.
Research increasingly suggests that biodiversity exposure can influence corporate efficiency, profitability, cash holdings, investment decisions and overall financial performance. Companies may respond by increasing precautionary liquidity, altering investment plans, modifying supply chains or changing financing strategies.
Financial and Market Risks
Biodiversity loss is increasingly entering financial-market analysis. Investors, banks and insurers are examining how corporate dependence on ecosystems can affect cash flows, asset values, creditworthiness and investment returns.
Higher biodiversity exposure may increase financing costs when lenders or investors perceive companies as more vulnerable to ecological disruption or regulatory change. Research has linked biodiversity risk with the cost of equity, corporate borrowing conditions, debt maturity, trade credit, dividend policies and equity financing.
Banks may charge higher loan spreads to businesses with greater biodiversity exposure, particularly when environmental violations or regulatory risks are also present. Suppliers may similarly become less willing to extend trade credit to companies facing heightened ecological uncertainty.
Biodiversity risk can also influence stock-market outcomes. Studies have investigated relationships between nature exposure, stock returns, downside risk and stock-price crashes. At a broader level, ecosystem degradation can affect sovereign creditworthiness and financial stability, demonstrating that biodiversity risk can move beyond individual firms and become a macroeconomic concern.
Insurance companies face biodiversity exposure through both their investment portfolios and their underwriting activities. Ecosystem decline can increase losses associated with flooding, agriculture, environmental liability and other insured risks, while simultaneously affecting the assets held by insurers.
Supply Chains and Corporate Resilience
Supply chains represent one of the most important channels through which biodiversity risk reaches businesses. Companies frequently depend on agricultural commodities, minerals, timber, water, biological resources and other inputs produced far from their own operations.
Ecological deterioration in supplier regions can increase commodity prices, disrupt production and reduce the availability of critical inputs. Biodiversity exposure can therefore move from suppliers to customers and eventually through broader networks of companies and investors.
Research suggests that biodiversity risk can influence decisions about supply-chain concentration and diversification. Businesses facing greater ecological uncertainty may seek alternative suppliers, restructure sourcing arrangements or diversify geographically to reduce exposure.
However, many nature-related risks cannot be managed effectively at the level of a single supplier or facility. Water systems, forests, agricultural regions and ecosystems often operate across entire landscapes. This has increased interest in landscape-scale initiatives in which companies, investors, governments and communities cooperate to address ecological pressures affecting multiple participants.
Corporate Governance and Strategic Decision-Making
Biodiversity is increasingly moving from specialist sustainability departments into corporate governance and strategic decision-making. Boards and senior executives may need to understand how nature-related risks affect business models, investment decisions, capital allocation and long-term competitiveness.
Corporate governance can influence how effectively businesses respond to biodiversity exposure. Board structure, institutional ownership, management incentives and external scrutiny can affect whether companies invest in genuine ecological improvements or focus primarily on public-facing sustainability claims.
Research has linked biodiversity exposure with changes in corporate investment, mergers and acquisitions, risk-taking, cash policies, innovation and financing decisions. Some businesses may treat biodiversity risk primarily as a threat, while others may respond by developing new technologies, products or strategies.
Green innovation is one potential response. Companies facing ecological pressure may increase investment in technologies or processes intended to reduce environmental impacts or improve resource efficiency. Strong governance, access to finance, competition and environmental regulation can strengthen this response.
There is also a risk of greenwashing. Companies under environmental or financial pressure may emphasize biodiversity commitments or sustainability messaging without making comparable improvements in underlying environmental performance. This makes credible measurement, disclosure and external verification increasingly important.
Biodiversity Measurement and Risk Assessment
Measuring biodiversity risk is more difficult than measuring many traditional financial risks. Biodiversity includes multiple dimensions of ecosystems, species, habitats and ecological functions, and impacts are often highly location-specific.
Narrow indicators can therefore give companies an incomplete picture of their exposure. Measuring only water scarcity, for example, may overlook water-quality problems. Measuring only deforestation may miss degradation of soils, freshwater systems, wetlands or marine ecosystems.
A growing range of biodiversity measurement approaches combines corporate data with information about asset locations, ecosystem condition, protected areas, species sensitivity and environmental pressures. Investors can use these tools to identify companies or assets operating in areas where ecosystem degradation may create material financial risk.
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures has promoted the LEAP approach: Locate, Evaluate, Assess and Prepare. The framework encourages organizations to locate their interactions with nature, evaluate dependencies and impacts, assess resulting risks and opportunities, and prepare appropriate strategies and disclosures.
Companies are also increasingly encouraged to examine their entire value chains rather than restricting nature assessments to facilities they directly own. Upstream suppliers and downstream activities can account for a substantial share of a company's ecological footprint and financial exposure.
Disclosure, TNFD and Emerging Reporting Standards
Nature-related disclosure has developed rapidly as investors seek more comparable information about biodiversity exposure. The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures established a framework covering governance, strategy, risk and impact management, and metrics and targets.
TNFD guidance has subsequently expanded into numerous industries and business activities, including food and agriculture, construction, real estate, oil and gas, apparel, pharmaceuticals, water utilities, transportation, beverages and financial institutions.
These frameworks encourage companies to disclose both their impacts on nature and their dependence on ecosystem services. This distinction is important because a company may have relatively modest direct environmental impacts while remaining highly dependent on ecological systems that are deteriorating.
International sustainability standard-setting is also moving toward greater consideration of biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services. Work by the International Sustainability Standards Board reflects growing investor demand for financially material information concerning nature-related risks and opportunities.
European sustainability reporting requirements similarly recognize physical, transition, market, reputational and systemic biodiversity risks. Together, these developments indicate a gradual movement toward more standardized corporate nature-risk reporting.
Legal, Regulatory and Transition Risks
Government responses to biodiversity loss can create transition risks for businesses through environmental regulation, protected areas, land-use restrictions, pollution controls and disclosure requirements.
Companies operating in biodiversity-sensitive sectors may face increasing compliance costs as governments strengthen environmental protection. Businesses associated with habitat destruction, deforestation or pollution may also encounter litigation, reputational damage and restrictions on project development.
Corporate directors may face governance questions when potentially material biodiversity risks are not properly considered. As scientific evidence, investor expectations and disclosure frameworks develop, ignoring nature-related financial risk may become increasingly difficult to justify as ordinary business practice.
Conservation itself can create economic transition effects. The designation of protected areas or stronger environmental protections can alter land values, operating conditions and investment opportunities for nearby businesses. These effects demonstrate why biodiversity policy can represent both a risk and an opportunity depending on a company's activities and preparedness.
Investors, Banks and Insurers
Financial institutions play an important role in transmitting biodiversity risks throughout the economy. Banks finance businesses dependent on natural resources, insurers underwrite assets exposed to ecological disruption and investors own companies operating throughout global supply chains.
Asset managers increasingly assess corporate exposure to biodiversity-sensitive locations, ecosystem dependencies and environmental controversies. Sector analysis can help identify industries with particularly significant nature-related exposure, including agriculture, forestry, mining and energy.
Investor stewardship is another growing area of activity. Investors may engage companies about deforestation, water use, land conversion, pollution, biodiversity targets and corporate lobbying. Some engagement initiatives focus on entire landscapes because ecosystem risks often cannot be solved by individual companies acting alone.
Financial institutions are also developing biodiversity policies that establish objectives, metrics, engagement strategies and governance arrangements. Regulators and central banks increasingly recognize that widespread ecological degradation could affect financial stability, making biodiversity relevant not only to sustainable investment but also to prudential risk management.
Sector-Specific Biodiversity Risks
Biodiversity risk varies considerably among industries, making sector-specific analysis important.
Food and agriculture businesses face risks associated with land conversion, soil degradation, water availability, pollination and ecosystem decline. Mining and construction companies can affect habitats through extraction, land disturbance and water use. Oil and gas operations may interact with sensitive ecosystems through exploration, production and infrastructure development.
Apparel companies can be exposed through agricultural fibers, water pollution, chemical use and waste. Beverage producers depend heavily on reliable freshwater and agricultural commodities. Water utilities are directly linked to watershed health and water quality.
Marine transportation and cruise companies face risks related to marine pollution, invasive species and coastal ecosystems. Biotechnology and pharmaceutical businesses may depend on biological resources while also creating potential impacts through manufacturing and resource use.
Technology and communications businesses may have less visible direct biodiversity exposure but can still face risks through infrastructure, energy use, supply chains, materials and geographically concentrated assets.
Because these differences are substantial, businesses increasingly need biodiversity assessments tailored to their particular value chains and operating environments.
Biodiversity Finance and Nature-Positive Investment
Biodiversity risk is accompanied by growing interest in financial mechanisms intended to support conservation and ecosystem restoration. These include biodiversity credits, payments for ecosystem services, green bonds, sustainability-linked finance and other forms of nature-related investment.
For companies, these mechanisms can provide opportunities to support conservation while strengthening supply-chain resilience or meeting environmental commitments. For investors, they can create new asset classes and financing opportunities.
However, credibility is essential. Biodiversity-credit projects and environmental markets require strong safeguards concerning additionality, durability, measurement, verification, legal rights and impacts on Indigenous peoples and local communities.
Experience with carbon markets illustrates the reputational and financial risks that can arise when environmental claims are weak or difficult to verify. Businesses purchasing biodiversity or nature-related credits therefore need to evaluate project integrity rather than assuming that all environmental instruments provide equivalent ecological benefits.
From Risk Recognition to Business Action
Managing biodiversity risk begins with understanding how a company both depends on and affects nature. Businesses can map operations and supply chains, identify ecologically sensitive locations and determine which ecosystem services are critical to production and long-term value creation.
The next step is to assess the financial consequences of ecosystem deterioration. This can include effects on revenue, input prices, operating costs, asset values, financing, insurance, regulatory compliance and business continuity.
Companies can then establish priorities, targets and management strategies. Actions may include improving sourcing practices, reducing pollution, protecting habitats, restoring ecosystems, improving water management, diversifying suppliers and incorporating biodiversity considerations into investment decisions.
Science-based targets for nature and other structured approaches are increasingly available to help businesses translate general environmental ambitions into measurable action.
Effective biodiversity management also requires governance. Boards and executives need reliable information, clearly assigned responsibilities and mechanisms for integrating nature-related risk into enterprise risk management, strategic planning and capital allocation.
Conclusion
Biodiversity loss is becoming an increasingly significant consideration for businesses because economic activity is embedded within and dependent upon functioning natural systems. Ecosystem degradation can affect companies through shortages of natural resources, declining ecosystem services, supply-chain disruptions, higher financing costs, regulatory changes, litigation, reputational damage and broader financial instability.
The implications extend far beyond industries traditionally considered environmentally sensitive. Banks, insurers, investors, manufacturers, retailers, technology companies and service businesses can all be exposed indirectly through suppliers, customers, assets and financial markets.
At the same time, greater recognition of biodiversity risk is encouraging innovation in corporate strategy, financial analysis, sustainability reporting and nature-positive investment. Frameworks such as TNFD, improved biodiversity data and emerging sustainability disclosure standards are making it easier for organizations to identify and communicate these exposures.
The central challenge for businesses is therefore moving from recognizing biodiversity as an environmental issue to understanding it as a component of financial resilience and long-term corporate strategy. Companies that identify their dependencies early, measure material risks, strengthen supply-chain resilience and integrate nature into governance and investment decisions may be better positioned to navigate an economy in which biodiversity and ecosystem health increasingly influence business value.
- TOC**
Biodiversity Risk for Businesses
Foundational Business Risk Frameworks & Reviews
Nature Risk Insights
| Swiss Re Corporate Solutions | Swiss Re | April 23, 2026
Presents a business framework for assessing biodiversity, ecosystem-service and water risks, including portfolio exposure, regulatory readiness and the financial quantification of nature-related vulnerabilities.
Financial risks of biodiversity loss: A review
| Guglielmo Alessandro Visentin | International Review of Economics & Finance | March 2026
Synthesizes hundreds of studies on biodiversity-related financial risk, including measurement methods, firm exposure, physical and transition risks, asset pricing and financial-system implications.
IPBES Business and Biodiversity Report highlights collaboration needed to contribute towards global goals for nature
| IUCN | IUCN | February 9, 2026
Summarizes evidence that business and finance both depend on and affect nature, making biodiversity loss a source of systemic economic and financial risk as well as a transformation challenge.
Nature at Risk, Finance at Stake: A Systematic Literature Review of Biodiversity Risk in Finance Research
| Dang et al. | Business Strategy and the Environment | 2026
Synthesizes more than one hundred peer-reviewed studies and organizes biodiversity finance research around materiality, governance, recognition, disclosure and financial transmission channels.
Biodiversity Finance: A Literature Survey of an Emerging Field
| Lei et al. | Journal of Economic Surveys | 2026
Synthesizes research on biodiversity risks in equity, debt and banking markets and reviews implications for corporate capital structure, disclosure, investor behavior and data needs.
It’s Now for Nature Pulse
| Business for Nature | Business for Nature | 2026
Tracks corporate progress on nature strategies and highlights the links between biodiversity action, resilience, reputation, regulation, revenue and risk management.
What Is Biodiversity Risk and Why Does It Matter for Investors?
| Martin Vezér | Morningstar | October 30, 2024
Shows how land-use and biodiversity risks can affect long-term portfolio performance and highlights corporate controversies tied to operations and supply chains.
The Biggest ESG Risk You May Not Know About
| Hortense Bioy; Noemi Pucci | Morningstar | October 22, 2024
Explains why biodiversity loss is becoming a major investment risk while biodiversity-focused funds and portfolio tools remain relatively limited compared with climate products.
Why businesses are waking up to the threat of nature-related risks
| Gim Huay Neo; Daniel Pacthod | World Economic Forum | January 11, 2024
Explains why nature loss and ecosystem collapse can threaten business performance and why a nature-positive strategy can create resilience, new markets and competitive opportunities.
Businesses must address nature-related financial risks. Here's why
| David Craig; Elizabeth Mrema | World Economic Forum | January 8, 2024
Distinguishes physical, transition and systemic nature risks and argues that biodiversity loss should be treated as a core financial and strategic risk rather than only a CSR issue.
Biodiversity on the balance sheet
| Nature Ecology & Evolution editors | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2023
Discusses why direct and indirect nature dependencies belong in corporate risk analysis while warning that weak biodiversity reporting can become a vehicle for greenwashing.
Economics Nature’s Way
| Partha Dasgupta | IMF Finance & Development | September 2021
Explains biodiversity as a form of natural-asset diversification that supports economic resilience and argues that finance and regulation must recognize the risks created by nature degradation.
Nature Risk Rising: Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy
| World Economic Forum; PwC | World Economic Forum | January 19, 2020
Establishes the economic case for treating nature loss as a business risk and shows how corporate operations, supply chains and markets depend heavily on ecosystem services.
Biodiversity: Finance and the Economic and Business Case for Action
| OECD | OECD | December 6, 2019
Sets out the economic case for biodiversity action and describes ecological, liability, regulatory, reputational, market and financial risks facing businesses, banks and investors.
Biodiversity-related risks to businesses
| OECD | OECD | December 6, 2019
Provides a detailed taxonomy of biodiversity-related business risks, including operational disruption, liability, regulation, reputation, market shifts, access to capital and asset depreciation.
The Nature of Risk: A Framework for Understanding Nature-related Risk to Business
Provides an early framework for integrating nature-related risks into private-sector decisions and uses case studies to show how ecosystem degradation can affect companies.
Corporate Strategy, Governance & Firm Behavior
ESG ratings and firm-level biodiversity risk exposure
| Feng He; Shiyao Yang; Longxuan Chen; Jing Hao | Global Finance Journal | September 2026
Finds that stronger ESG ratings are associated with lower corporate biodiversity risk exposure, partly through better governance, external attention and reduced financing constraints.
The corporate biodiversity exposure effects on ESG performance
Finds that biodiversity exposure is associated with changes in overall, environmental and social ESG performance, with stronger effects among some privately controlled firms.
Biodiversity risk spillovers, supply-chain transmission, and corporate “defensive greenwashing”
| Authors listed in article | Journal of International Money and Finance | August 28, 2026
Finds that biodiversity risk can travel from suppliers to downstream customers, generating reputational and capital-flow pressure and, in some cases, superficial ESG responses rather than substantive environmental improvement.
Does biodiversity risk affect corporate green innovation? — Evidence from China
Finds that biodiversity risk can stimulate substantive green innovation, particularly where firms have strong governance, access to finance and exposure to competitive or regulatory pressure.
Pressure mounting on company boards to address nature-related financial risks
| Rida Ali | Thomson Reuters Institute | March 27, 2026
Explains why boards face increasing pressure to measure, disclose and manage nature-related dependencies and risks as reporting rules, investor expectations and transition planning mature.
Biodiversity risks and corporate innovation: Evidence from China
| Yongjian Lin; Zhicheng Song | PLOS One | March 18, 2026
Finds that higher biodiversity risk exposure is associated with increased corporate innovation, partly because ecological risk raises operating costs and attracts greater analyst attention.
Biodiversity risk and corporate greenwashing: Evidence from China
Finds that biodiversity risk can increase corporate greenwashing when financing constraints and environmental subsidies encourage firms to emphasize appearance rather than substantive ecological performance.
When Stakeholders Are Not Watching: Corporate Social Responsibility and Biodiversity Risk
| Ahmed Elnahas; Md Noman Hossain; Md Rajib Kamal | SSRN | February 4, 2026
Examines whether firms increase corporate social responsibility when biodiversity exposure rises, using nature risk to test competing explanations for corporate sustainability behavior.
How do SBTs for nature help companies act on biodiversity?
| Science Based Targets Network | SBTN | February 1, 2026
Connects pollinator decline, soil degradation, overfishing and deforestation with business costs and supply-chain risk and explains how place-based targets can support corporate action.
No Business without Nature
| Deloitte Switzerland | Deloitte | January 19, 2026
Explains why biodiversity and ecosystem dependencies are moving onto the C-suite agenda and outlines practical steps for managing nature-related risks across operations and supply chains.
Biodiversity risk and firms’ green investment: Evidence from China
| Authors listed in article | Borsa Istanbul Review | January 2026
Finds that firms facing greater biodiversity risk substantially increase green investment, with governance, ESG performance and ownership structure influencing the strength of the response.
UNEP-WCMC hosts third Nature Action Dialogues
| UNEP-WCMC | UNEP-WCMC | 2026
Highlights examples of nature-related supply-chain disruption and discusses why financial markets often respond slowly to ecosystem decline despite material business exposure.
Cross-step guidance for science-based targets for nature
| Science Based Targets Network | SBTN | 2026
Provides companies with a structured process for identifying material nature pressures and turning them into science-based targets that can reduce biodiversity-related business risk.
Corporate nature risk perceptions
Surveys corporate nature-risk perceptions and finds that many firms already view physical and transition nature risks as financially material, while investor engagement can help accelerate corporate responses.
Nature climbs up the corporate agenda
| PwC Malaysia | PwC | September 4, 2025
Offers a practical checklist for moving nature risk from sustainability teams into supply-chain, finance, strategy, investment and enterprise-risk decisions.
How do executives respond to biodiversity risk? Evidence from opportunistic stock selling
| Jiangze Du; Fule Liu; Yuan-Teng Hsu; Dien Giau Bui | Pacific-Basin Finance Journal | June 2025
Finds that biodiversity risk changes insider trading behavior and can reduce opportunistic stock selling, particularly when regulatory aspects of ecological risk are prominent.
The Business Case for Board Engagement in Nature
| Stephen Farrell | Deloitte | May 7, 2025
Explains why boards should treat nature loss as a strategic financial issue affecting supply chains, costs, asset values, regulation, investor scrutiny and long-term competitiveness.
Why businesses shouldn't overlook nature risks in sustainability
| KPMG Canada | KPMG | May 2025
Argues that focusing only on carbon can leave companies exposed to biodiversity, water and ecosystem risks that interact with climate change and threaten operational resilience.
Can biodiversity risk improve firm ESG performance? Empirical evidence from China
| Authors listed in article | Finance Research Letters | April 2025
Finds that biodiversity exposure can trigger improved ESG performance through green innovation and external regulation, particularly among state-owned and heavy-polluting firms.
Eco-innovation under pressure: How biodiversity risks shape corporate sustainability strategies
| Authors listed in article | Finance Research Letters | March 2025
Finds that firms respond to biodiversity pressure with more eco-innovation, especially when media attention, ESG ownership and environmental regulation make nature risk more visible.
When green claims turn brown: The Impact of corporate greenwashing on biodiversity risk in China
| Yufei Gan | Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance | 2025
Finds that greenwashing can increase biodiversity risk through weak environmental disclosure and distorted innovation incentives, while environmentally experienced leadership can mitigate the effect.
Managerial myopia and biodiversity alignment- evidence from China
| Yinghan Zhao; Xiaoyu Qu; Brian Lucey | International Review of Financial Analysis | 2025
Finds that short-term managerial orientation is associated with weaker biodiversity alignment, highlighting governance and executive incentives as components of corporate nature risk.
Protecting biodiversity and nature-positive business strategies
| Deloitte Insights | Deloitte | 2024
Explains how biodiversity loss can threaten business models through resource shortages, commodity prices and disrupted ecosystem services while creating opportunities for nature-positive products and investment.
Biodiversity and Business: Are Companies Aware of Nature’s Risks?
| Shitiz Chaudhary; Arne Philipp Klug | MSCI | September 25, 2023
Finds that companies increasingly mention biodiversity but often lack detailed disclosure of relevant regulation, risk-management practices and location-specific exposure.
Roadmaps to Nature Positive: Foundations for all businesses
| World Business Council for Sustainable Development | WBCSD | September 12, 2023
Provides step-by-step guidance for companies to identify nature dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities and integrate them into targets, transformation plans, metrics and disclosure.
From impacts to dependencies: A first global assessment of corporate biodiversity risk exposure and responses
| Carvalho et al. | Business Strategy and the Environment | 2023
Finds substantial enterprise value exposed to unmanaged biodiversity risk and shows that companies have responded more strongly to visible impacts than to ecosystem-service dependencies.
Your company’s impact on biodiversity loss
Explains physical, transition and market risks from biodiversity loss and recommends that companies connect nature dependencies and impacts with financial materiality and business planning.
Why biodiversity may be more important to your business than you realize
| Alexis Gazzo | EY | April 25, 2022
Explains how biodiversity loss can disrupt supply chains, raise compliance costs, threaten social license and affect capital allocation while encouraging firms to build accountability and measurable strategies.
Biodiversity and business: How should your organisation respond?
| Deloitte UK | Deloitte | June 2, 2020
Explains why biodiversity loss creates operational and financial risk and recommends that companies map nature dependencies across their value chains before setting management priorities.
These are the hidden risks to business caused by nature loss
| World Economic Forum | World Economic Forum | 2020
Highlights underappreciated consequences of nature loss including risk mispricing, inadequate capital allocation, stranded assets and economic losses from degraded ecosystem services.
Business sector analysis of natural capital risk
| Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty | Allianz | 2018
Compares natural-capital risk and mitigation across sectors, including biodiversity, water, emissions and waste, and identifies industries where exposure exceeds current risk-management capacity.
The next environmental issue for business: McKinsey Global Survey results
| McKinsey & Company | McKinsey & Company | 2010
Documents early corporate concern about biodiversity-linked risks such as water scarcity, supply shortages, disease, food insecurity, flooding, drought and soil degradation.
Supply Chains, Operations & Nature Dependence
How businesses can identify where nature-related risk matters most
| Phil Cryle; Emily McKenzie | World Economic Forum | June 12, 2026
Shows how companies can connect ecosystem-service decline to operational disruption, supply volatility and community impacts so that nature investments target the places where business exposure is greatest.
Guidance on value chains
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | March 2026
Helps companies assess nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities across upstream and downstream value chains when direct traceability and primary data are incomplete.
When nature disrupts: biodiversity risk and corporate supply chain resilience
| Wenwen Jin | Finance Research Letters | December 2025
Finds that biodiversity risk weakens supply-chain resilience, with particularly strong effects for manufacturing firms, less diversified companies and businesses facing maturity mismatch and agency costs.
Corporate biodiversity risk exposure and performance aspiration deficit
| Jing Liu; Peigong Li; Umeair Shahzad | International Review of Economics & Finance | December 2025
Links biodiversity exposure with larger gaps between expected and achieved corporate performance and identifies supply-chain concentration as an important transmission mechanism.
Firm-level nature dependence
Develops firm-level nature-dependence scores covering thousands of companies worldwide and finds that dependence can predict downside risk and environmental incidents.
How much does your bottom line depend on nature?
| Katelyn Bonato; Lucas Carmody; Annabell Chartres | PwC | September 5, 2025
Shows how finance and operations teams can identify financially material ecosystem dependencies and translate nature-related changes into risks to costs, continuity, productivity and value creation.
The Impact of Biodiversity Risk on Supply Chain Strategy: Evidence From the Chinese MNEs
| Weiwei Fu et al. | Business Strategy and the Environment | July 21, 2025
Finds that biodiversity risk can alter multinational supply-chain concentration and diversification choices, with home-country and host-country risks producing different strategic responses.
Companies around the world face risks from their reliance on nature
| Esther Whieldon et al. | S&P Global Sustainable1 | 2025
Finds widespread corporate dependence on ecosystem services and significant asset exposure near key biodiversity areas while noting that formal corporate commitments to protect nature remain uncommon.
Biodiversity risk and firm efficiency
| Yulin Li; Xiaohui Liu; Jean Canil; Chee Seng Cheong | Finance Research Letters | January 2025
Finds that biodiversity risk is associated with lower firm efficiency, partly through greater external-financing needs and higher capital costs.
How the world’s largest companies depend on nature and biodiversity
| S&P Global Sustainable1 | S&P Global | 2023
Uses company and asset-location data to show that major corporations depend on ecosystem services in different ways and that exposure is often highly location-specific.
Financial Markets & Corporate Finance
Nature's toll on the books: biodiversity exposure and earnings management
| Authors listed in article | Finance Research Letters | September 2026
Links higher firm-level biodiversity exposure with greater earnings-management behavior, suggesting that ecological uncertainty can affect financial reporting choices as well as operating and financing decisions.
Strategic breakthrough under ecological constraints: how biodiversity risk drives corporate mergers and acquisitions in China
| Authors listed in article | International Journal of Emerging Markets | July 21, 2026
Finds that biodiversity risk can increase merger-and-acquisition activity as companies seek strategic adaptation, with especially strong responses in environmentally sensitive industries.
The Impact of Biodiversity Risk Exposure on Investment and Equity Financing: Firm-Level Evidence From the United States
Examines how biodiversity-risk exposure changes corporate investment and equity-financing sensitivity, showing that nature risk can influence the way firms fund growth opportunities.
Impact of biodiversity risk on corporate financial performance: Evidence from listed companies in China
| Boyao Li; Tiancheng Sheng; Xiaoyun Xing | Biodiversity Science | May 27, 2026
Examines how firm-level biodiversity exposure and attention relate to financial performance among Chinese listed companies, adding evidence on the direct business consequences of nature risk.
Assessing biodiversity risk in investment portfolios
| Hannah Layman et al. | FTSE Russell / LSEG | May 22, 2026
Explains how biodiversity affects corporate cash flows and portfolio performance through input dependencies, operational disruption, regulatory exposure, supply chains and location-specific ecosystem vulnerabilities.
An Investor's Guide to Nature and Biodiversity Risks and Impacts
| Thierry Corti; Arne Philipp Klug | MSCI | May 4, 2026
Offers a structured framework for investors to assess biodiversity impacts, ecosystem-service dependencies, mitigation capacity and financially material nature risks across companies and portfolios.
Are Investors Missing Biodiversity Risk?
| Bettina Meyer; Gabriela de la Serna | MSCI | April 10, 2026
Discusses how location-level biodiversity data can reveal financially material exposures that traditional portfolio analysis misses and improve investor prioritization of high-risk companies and assets.
Biodiversity Risk and Informal Financing: Evidence from Trade Credit in Supply Chains
| Suyang Li; Boru Ren; Yezhou Sha | SSRN | March 24, 2026
Finds that firms facing greater biodiversity risk both extend and receive less trade credit, showing how ecological uncertainty can tighten informal financing throughout supply chains.
Biodiversity risk disclosures and stock price crash risk
| Donglai Ning; Yukihiro Yasuda | Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance | March 2026
Finds that early TNFD adoption in Japan reduced stock-price crash risk, suggesting that biodiversity disclosure can improve information quality and reduce hidden downside risk.
Root and Branch: A Case Study in Assessing Portfolio Biodiversity Risk
| Sara Rosner; David Hutchins; Henry Smith | AllianceBernstein / Morningstar | February 4, 2026
Demonstrates portfolio-level biodiversity assessment and finds that water-related exposure can be more material than deforestation for many holdings.
Threat or opportunity: Biodiversity risk and corporate investment
| Xiaomeng Deng; Pengwei Zhang; You Wu | Finance Research Letters | February 2026
Finds that firms facing higher biodiversity risk may increase investment, especially in competitive industries where early strategic adaptation can create first-mover advantages.
Effect of biodiversity risk on upside and downside returns
| Authors listed in article | Economics Letters | February 2026
Finds that biodiversity exposure increases both downside and upside stock-return risk, indicating that ecological uncertainty can widen the distribution of firm-level financial outcomes.
Unearthing the nature risk in financial portfolios
| Lynne Baber; Charlotte Boulogne; Lucas Carmody; Eu-Lin Fang | PwC | January 12, 2026
Shows how ecosystem degradation can reduce business value and GDP and proposes ways for lenders and insurers to incorporate probability, exposure and ecosystem condition into risk models.
New Research Identifies Biodiversity Protection as a Material Financial Risk for Companies & Investors
| Schulich School of Business | York University | January 9, 2026
Summarizes research showing that expanding biodiversity protection can materially affect corporate profitability, valuation and investor exposure, reinforcing conservation policy as a transition-risk factor.
Biodiversity risk, corporate governance, and firm performance: empirical evidence from China
| Nasir Khan; Brian Lucey | Finance Research Letters | January 2026
Reports a negative relationship between biodiversity risk and firm performance and examines how board structure, institutional ownership and auditor tenure interact with that exposure.
From Ecosystem Threats to Balance Sheets: Biodiversity Risks Exposure and Corporate Cash Policies
| Authors listed in article | Business Strategy and the Environment | 2026
Finds that biodiversity exposure leads firms to hold more cash as a precaution, especially when debt costs, short-term financing needs and transition pressures are high.
Biodiversity risk exposure and corporate risk-taking
| Jinyu Yang; Chao Liang; Lihua Shen | International Review of Financial Analysis | 2026
Finds that corporate biodiversity exposure can alter risk-taking behavior, with financing conditions and governance characteristics helping determine how managers respond.
Pressure-Driven Cash Holdings Under Biodiversity Risk
| Kangding Wang; Tongbin Xu; Min Yang | European Financial Management | 2026
Finds that firms exposed to greater biodiversity risk hold more cash as a precautionary buffer, especially when governance and institutional pressures make ecological risk more salient.
Biodiversity risk and payment methods in mergers & acquisitions
| Authors listed in article | Finance Research Letters | 2026
Finds that biodiversity risk at target companies can influence whether acquisitions are financed with stock rather than cash, linking ecological uncertainty to deal structure.
Biodiversity risk and firms’ access to trade credit
Finds that firms with greater biodiversity exposure receive less supplier financing, showing how ecological risk can spill into working-capital conditions and supply-chain relationships.
Nature, Nurture and Numbers: Nature-Related Impacts on S&P World Index Performance
| S&P Dow Jones Indices | S&P Global | November 20, 2025
Analyzes nature dependencies within the S&P World Index and reports performance differences between companies with higher and lower operational dependence on ecosystem services.
Biodiversity Risk and the Cost of Equity Capital: Implications for Sustainable Development
| Zhang-Hangjian Chen | Sustainable Development | November 17, 2025
Finds that biodiversity risk raises the cost of equity capital, indicating that investors may demand a higher return from firms perceived to have greater ecological exposure.
The pricing of biodiversity risk in commodity markets
| Massimo Guidolin; Manuela Pedio | Review of Finance | November 6, 2025
Finds that biodiversity transition risk is priced in global commodity markets, particularly agriculture, linking nature policy and ecological footprints with input and commodity-price risk.
When Nature Hits the Bottom Line: Transition Biodiversity Risk and Corporate Creditworthiness
| Nam Thanh Vu; Duc Hong Vo | Business Strategy and the Environment | November 5, 2025
Finds that biodiversity transition risk reduces corporate creditworthiness through valuation and risk-perception channels, while cash reserves and product innovation can improve resilience.
Biodiversity risk and corporate debt maturity
Finds that biodiversity-exposed firms reduce reliance on short-term debt, suggesting that ecological uncertainty can reshape capital structure and debt-maturity choices.
Biodiversity risk
Develops measures of aggregate and firm-level biodiversity risk and studies how physical and regulatory nature risks are reflected in corporate exposure and asset values.
Financial value of nature: coastal housing markets, mangroves, and climate resilience
| Teng Liu; Brook Constantz; Galina Hale; Michael W. Beck | Review of Finance | October 27, 2025
Quantifies the financial value of mangroves by showing that nearby coastal housing experiences smaller value losses after hurricanes, with implications for property owners, lenders and insurers.
Biodiversity and local asset values
| Jess Cornaggia; Yu-Hsuan Liang; Peter Iliev; Qiang Wang | Review of Finance | October 14, 2025
Shows that local biodiversity conditions can influence real-estate values, illustrating how ecosystem quality can become a financially material location characteristic.
From Awareness to Action: Sector-Based Biodiversity Risk in Investments
| Laura Coomber; Nell Ng | MSCI | September 25, 2025
Identifies agriculture, mining, forestry and energy as major biodiversity-risk sectors and explains how investors can use sector analysis to prioritize engagement and portfolio management.
Research on biodiversity risk and corporate short-term debt for long-term use under disclosure regulation
| Authors listed in article | Finance Research Letters | May 2025
Finds that biodiversity risk can worsen maturity mismatch by increasing the use of short-term debt for long-term purposes, especially for firms under heavier competitive and financial pressure.
Dividend payouts and biodiversity risk — Chinese evidence
| Yang Zhou; Brian M. Lucey; Feng He | Research in International Business and Finance | April 2025
Finds that biodiversity risk reduces dividend payouts as firms face financing difficulty and redirect resources, showing another channel through which ecological exposure affects shareholders.
Biodiversity risk and value creation in emerging markets
| Authors listed in article | Finance Research Letters | 2025
Finds that proactive biodiversity-risk management can increase firm value, with green innovation and institutional-investor oversight helping convert ecological management into financial benefits.
Biodiversity risk and seasoned equity offerings
| Authors listed in article | Economics Letters | 2025
Finds that biodiversity-exposed firms are more likely to issue seasoned equity, particularly when external financing needs are high, suggesting that nature risk affects corporate funding choices.
Biodiversity and stock returns
| Feng Ma; Hanlin Wu; Qing Zeng | International Review of Financial Analysis | October 2024
Develops a biodiversity-risk index and finds that biodiversity conditions have predictive power for stock-market returns, with sensitivity varying by sector, ownership and geography.
Do investors care about biodiversity?
Finds that investors increasingly price corporate biodiversity footprints, particularly after major international biodiversity-policy developments increased awareness of nature transition risk.
Beyond climate change risk: Biodiversity and corporate cash holdings
| Muhammad Farooq Ahmad; Ahmet Karpuz | Economics Letters | March 2024
Finds that biodiversity risk independently increases corporate cash holdings, consistent with firms building precautionary liquidity against ecological uncertainty and financial constraints.
Banking, Insurance & Systemic Financial Risk
A LEAP for Nature – Advancing Nature-related Financial Risk and Opportunity Assessment in Malaysia
| World Bank; Bank Negara Malaysia; UNDP BIOFIN | World Bank | June 11, 2026
Reviews nature-related financial exposure in Malaysia and provides practical guidance for banks and companies applying the TNFD LEAP approach to dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities.
Biodiversity loss will decrease the future creditworthiness of nations
| Matthew Agarwala et al. | Nature Ecology & Evolution | June 5, 2026
Shows that biodiversity loss and deforestation can weaken sovereign creditworthiness, illustrating a macro-financial channel through which nature degradation can raise financing risk for businesses and investors.
NGFS 2026 Nature Package
| Network for Greening the Financial System | NGFS | June 1, 2026
Provides central banks and supervisors with practical guidance on nature-related data, scenario modelling and supervision, reinforcing the financial-system relevance of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation.
The role of biodiversity risk in shaping bank lending decisions
| Karoline Bax; Aida Ćehajić | European Central Bank Working Paper Series | May 13, 2026
Finds that borrowers with higher biodiversity risk pay significantly higher syndicated-loan spreads and that environmental violations make banks even more sensitive to ecological exposure.
Supervision of Nature-Related Financial Risks: Challenges and Opportunities for Financial Institutions and Supervisors
| UNEP Finance Initiative | UNEP Finance Initiative | May 7, 2026
Reviews evolving supervisory expectations for nature-related financial risk and the implications for governance, assessment and risk-management practices at financial institutions.
Biodiversity loss and financial markets risk: insights from a CoVaR approach
Uses a CoVaR framework to examine how biodiversity loss can transmit sector-level stress into broader financial-market risk, highlighting possible systemic consequences of nature degradation.
Nature Risk Assessment for the Financial Sector
| World Bank | World Bank | January 29, 2026
Reviews tools used by financial institutions to identify where ecosystem degradation threatens portfolios and highlights national approaches to nature-risk assessment and TNFD-aligned disclosure.
Managing nature risks and building resilience
| UNEP Finance Initiative | UNEP Finance Initiative | 2026
Explains how ecosystem degradation can affect asset values, underwriting, lending and portfolios and outlines approaches for building financial resilience to nature loss.
Report on biodiversity risk management by insurers
| European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority | EIOPA | June 30, 2025
Maps how European insurers identify, measure and manage biodiversity risks within Solvency II and highlights remaining challenges in integrating ecological risk into insurance governance.
Biodiversity finance: Sovereign biodiversity loss drivers and financial stability
| Michael Mies | Journal of Industrial Ecology | April 21, 2025
Links biodiversity-loss drivers such as land-use change, drought and freshwater stress with measures of systemic financial risk, illustrating macro-financial channels relevant to businesses and lenders.
French insurers facing the risks associated with biodiversity loss: Challenges and lessons learned for the insurance industry and supervisors
Examines biodiversity exposure in insurance investments and underwriting and identifies methodological and data challenges for measuring ecosystem dependencies and financial risk.
The rise of nature risk
| Allianz Commercial | Allianz | February 2025
Explains how biodiversity loss, water scarcity, deforestation and ecosystem decline are emerging as operational, regulatory and reputational risks for companies and insurers.
Do banks price firms' biodiversity risk? Evidence from the Kunming declaration
| Jun Li; Yihang Jin; Peng Zhou | International Review of Financial Analysis | 2025
Finds that banks charge higher syndicated-loan spreads to firms with greater biodiversity exposure after the Kunming Declaration, showing that ecological transition risk is entering corporate credit pricing.
Climate Financial Risk Forum: Developing an approach to nature risk in financial services
| Climate Financial Risk Forum | Bank of England | 2025
Provides practical guidance and case studies for integrating nature-related physical, transition and systemic risks into financial-services governance, assessment and decision-making.
Rooted in Risk: Framing nature-related assessments for insurers
| UNEP FI Principles for Sustainable Insurance | UNEP Finance Initiative | 2025
Provides an insurer-focused framework for identifying nature-related dependencies, impacts and risks across underwriting, investment and insurance value chains.
Firm biodiversity risk, climate vulnerabilities, and bankruptcy risk
Finds that biodiversity exposure increases the likelihood of corporate financial distress and bankruptcy, with effects shaped by financing constraints, carbon intensity and growth opportunities.
Embedded in Nature: Nature-Related Economic and Financial Risks and Policy Considerations
| International Monetary Fund | IMF | October 1, 2024
Maps macroeconomic and financial transmission channels from nature loss and finds substantial banking exposure to sectors linked with harmful subsidies and conservation-sensitive areas.
Economic and financial impacts of nature degradation and biodiversity loss
| Andrej Ceglar et al. | European Central Bank | September 24, 2024
Explains how acute and chronic ecosystem degradation can transmit into company losses, credit risk and financial instability, with particular concern for sectors highly dependent on ecosystem services.
Nature-related risk: legal implications for central banks, supervisors and financial institutions
| Frank Elderson | European Central Bank | September 6, 2024
Treats nature degradation as a material financial risk and discusses the legal and supervisory consequences of failing to account for biodiversity-related economic exposures.
A supervisory framework for assessing nature-related financial risks
| OECD | OECD | September 28, 2023
Provides central banks, supervisors and banks with a framework for translating biodiversity dependencies and impacts into physical and transition financial risks.
Underwriting the Biodiversity Crisis
| Cody Dong; Arne Philipp Klug | MSCI | March 27, 2023
Links biodiversity loss with insurance risks affecting flood, crop, health and environmental-liability coverage and describes how geospatial data can support underwriting and pricing.
What’s next for financial institutions and nature-related risk?
| Marianne Haahr | UNEP Finance Initiative | January 26, 2023
Explains physical, transition and systemic biodiversity risks for finance and discusses how global biodiversity policy and emerging disclosure tools can change financial decision-making.
Gearing up for climate action - the road ahead for the Network for Greening the Financial System
| Bank for International Settlements | Bank for International Settlements | June 2, 2022
Explains why nature-related financial risk and biodiversity loss belong within central-bank and supervisory risk frameworks alongside climate change.
Launch of the Joint Report on nature-related financial risks in Malaysia
Highlights the economic and financial-stability consequences of biodiversity loss and describes early efforts to assess financial-sector dependencies and impacts on nature.
Why managing biodiversity risk is critical for the global economy
| Oliver Schelske; Bernd Wilke | Swiss Re Institute | September 23, 2020
Introduces an ecosystem-service risk index and shows how declining biodiversity can undermine economic activity and insurance resilience where natural systems are already fragile.
Disclosure, Measurement & Data
Biodiversity at risk when businesses rely on narrow indicators
Warns that companies using only a narrow set of biodiversity indicators may overlook important ecological dimensions, arguing for broader measurement frameworks when assessing business impacts and nature-related risk.
Biodiversity Measurement Approaches Guide (5th Edition)
Compares biodiversity measurement tools for financial institutions and helps users choose methods for assessing impacts, dependencies and nature-related exposure across portfolios and asset classes.
Water-Quality Risk Can Be Missed by Standard Measures
| Lauren Yeung; Bettina Meyer; Umar Ashfaq | MSCI | May 6, 2026
Shows that corporate nature-risk analysis can miss facilities exposed to poor water quality when assessments focus only on scarcity, underscoring the need for multidimensional ecosystem-risk metrics.
Emmanuel Faber’s speech at the 2026 Beijing International Sustainability Conference
| Emmanuel Faber | IFRS Foundation | May 2026
Explains the ISSB’s move toward more precise nature-related disclosure requirements intended to provide investors with financially material information about corporate nature risks and opportunities.
ISSB Update February 2026
| International Sustainability Standards Board | IFRS Foundation | February 2026
Documents the ISSB’s work toward standard-setting on biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services and its focus on financially material nature-related risks and opportunities.
TNFD Reporting
| S&P Global Sustainable1 | S&P Global | 2026
Describes company and portfolio tools for identifying and reporting nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities using asset-level data aligned with the TNFD framework.
Nature & Biodiversity Risk
| S&P Global | S&P Global Marketplace | 2026
Describes a data framework combining company, asset and ecosystem information to assess biodiversity impacts, dependencies, protected-area exposure and nature-related risk.
ISSB Update January 2026
| International Sustainability Standards Board | IFRS Foundation | January 2026
Records the ISSB decision to proceed with standard-setting work on nature-related risks and opportunities, signaling growing expectations for comparable corporate biodiversity disclosure.
ISSB: Frequently Asked Questions — biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services
| International Sustainability Standards Board | IFRS Foundation | 2026
Explains the ISSB’s research and standard-setting priorities for biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services and its focus on information investors need to assess effects on company prospects.
Recommendations for upgrading the nature data value chain for market participants
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | November 2025
Identifies improvements needed in nature data quality, accessibility, measurement and interoperability so companies and investors can make more reliable biodiversity-risk decisions.
ISSB Update November 2025
| International Sustainability Standards Board | IFRS Foundation | November 2025
Examines how TNFD recommendations, metrics and the LEAP approach could inform future ISSB disclosure requirements for corporate nature-related risks and opportunities.
The assessment of nature-related risks: From ecosystem services vulnerability to economic exposure and financial disclosures
| Alessandra La Notte et al. | Ecological Economics | September 2025
Develops a framework connecting ecosystem-service vulnerability to economic exposure and financial disclosure, providing a bridge between ecological accounting and corporate nature-risk assessment.
ISSB Update September 2025
| International Sustainability Standards Board | IFRS Foundation | September 2025
Summarizes investor information needs related to biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services as the ISSB develops a global disclosure approach for financially material nature issues.
Biodiversity risk or climate risk? Which factor affects corporate ESG rating divergence
Finds that biodiversity exposure can reduce disagreement among ESG ratings by encouraging more environmental disclosure, illustrating how nature risk changes information available to investors.
Global Nature Action Barometer 2025
Finds that corporate nature reporting remains immature, with few companies disclosing detailed strategies, metrics and targets despite growing recognition of biodiversity-related risks and opportunities.
The move to mandatory reporting: Survey of Sustainability Reporting 2024
Reports a sharp rise in the share of large companies identifying biodiversity and nature loss as business risks, reflecting growing disclosure and regulatory pressure.
Additional guidance for financial institutions
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | 2025
Provides financial institutions with additional TNFD guidance on portfolio exposures, metrics and disclosures for nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities.
ESRS E4 - Biodiversity and Ecosystems: Application Requirements
| EFRAG | EFRAG Knowledge Hub | 2025
Defines physical, transition, market, reputational and systemic biodiversity risks for corporate reporting and illustrates how ecosystem decline can affect inputs, costs, financing and business continuity.
Sustainability reporting in New Zealand
| KPMG New Zealand | KPMG | 2025
Finds that relatively few surveyed New Zealand organizations recognize biodiversity and nature loss as business risks despite the economy’s strong dependence on natural capital.
Biodiversity reporting by United Kingdom-listed companies: A review of extent, content and readability of disclosures
| Maroun et al. | Business Strategy and the Environment | 2024
Finds that biodiversity risk assessments, governance structures, management controls and action plans remain limited in many corporate reports, leaving material nature exposures poorly explained.
Assessing Biodiversity-Related Risks in APAC
| S.K. Kim; Jurgita Balaisyte | MSCI | December 8, 2023
Shows how investors can combine sector exposure with asset locations in biodiversity-sensitive areas to identify companies facing heightened land-use, pollution and water risks.
Guidance on the identification and assessment of nature-related issues: the LEAP approach
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | October 2023
Provides the Locate, Evaluate, Assess and Prepare process for identifying where companies interact with nature and how dependencies and impacts can become material risks or opportunities.
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures Recommendations
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | September 2023
Establishes a global framework for organizations to disclose nature-related governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets and to connect biodiversity issues with financial decision-making.
Nature Risk Profile: A Methodology for Profiling Nature Related Dependencies and Impacts
| Jacob Bedford et al. | UNEP-WCMC / S&P Global | January 17, 2023
Provides an open methodology for combining corporate asset locations with ecological data to identify business and investment dependencies and impacts on nature.
The Bank of England’s climate-related financial disclosure 2023
| Bank of England | Bank of England | 2023
Recognizes biodiversity and broader environmental degradation as potential sources of financial risk and describes work to assess their materiality to firms and the financial system.
Expert methodology to guide business action for nature
| UNEP-WCMC | UNEP-WCMC | January 2023
Explains why location-specific quantitative information is essential for companies and investors trying to identify material nature dependencies and biodiversity impacts.
UNEP-WCMC welcomes launch of TNFD disclosure framework and urges global engagement
| UNEP-WCMC | UNEP-WCMC | 2023
Explains how nature disclosure can improve corporate accountability and help businesses and financiers understand dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities.
IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information
| IFRS Foundation | IFRS Foundation | 2023
Explains that companies applying IFRS S1 may use biodiversity-related guidance and industry standards to identify sustainability risks and opportunities material to enterprise value.
Nature risk and the emerging reporting framework
| Marsh | Marsh | October 20, 2022
Explains how biodiversity loss can create operational, regulatory, transition and stranded-asset risks and describes the emergence of TNFD-style corporate reporting.
TNFD Financial Market Readiness Assessment
| UNEP FI; UNDP | UNEP Finance Initiative | October 2022
Assesses how financial institutions are integrating nature-related risks and identifies practical barriers, incentives and data needs affecting adoption of TNFD-style reporting.
The Bank of England's climate-related financial disclosure 2022
| Bank of England | Bank of England | June 2022
Discusses emerging work on nature-related financial risk, including efforts to understand how ecosystem loss could transmit through businesses, markets and regulated financial institutions.
Prioritising nature-related disclosures: considerations for high-risk sectors
| UNEP FI; UNDP; UNEP-WCMC | UNEP Finance Initiative | April 2022
Identifies biodiversity dependencies, impacts and data priorities across high-risk sectors to help businesses and financial institutions focus early nature-related disclosure efforts.
How keen and ready is business for nature-related financial disclosure?
| UNEP FI; UNEP-WCMC; UNDP | UNEP Finance Initiative | 2022
Finds strong corporate interest in nature-related disclosure but major gaps in data, knowledge and treatment of ecosystem dependencies.
Legal, Regulatory & Policy Risk
Biodiversity risk: Legal implications for companies and their directors
| Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative | Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative | July 16, 2026
Argues that directors may face governance and disclosure liability when material biodiversity risks are ignored, especially as investor expectations, regulation and biodiversity litigation continue to develop.
New guidance supports governments to turn biodiversity commitments into business action
| Business for Nature | Business for Nature | June 16, 2026
Explains how governments can translate national biodiversity commitments into clearer expectations and incentives for companies, increasing the importance of nature in corporate planning.
The real effects of protecting biodiversity
| Amir Akbari; Lilian Ng; Man Duy Pham; Jing Yu | Review of Finance | October 27, 2025
Examines how newly protected areas affect nearby establishments, showing that conservation policy can create measurable environmental, operating and financial effects for businesses.
How does biodiversity risk exposure affect corporate regulatory intensity?
| Authors listed in article | Finance Research Letters | 2025
Finds that greater biodiversity exposure is associated with higher regulatory intensity and compliance costs, with effects depending on institutions and corporate structure.
Impact of the environmental protection law on corporate biodiversity risk attention - An empirical analysis based on data of Chinese listed companies
| Authors listed in article | Finance Research Letters | 2025
Finds that stronger environmental law increases corporate attention to biodiversity risk, particularly in ecologically sensitive industries and firms with greater environmental awareness.
Performance Standard 6: Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources
| International Finance Corporation | IFC | 2012
Sets expectations for identifying and managing biodiversity risks in projects, including impacts on habitats, ecosystem services and living natural resources.
Sector-Specific Risks & Guidance
Additional sector guidance – Alternative fuels
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | August 2026
Provides sector-specific guidance for identifying nature dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities across alternative-fuel value chains spanning biofuels, agriculture, chemicals, forestry, transport, waste and energy.
Investor Engagement Brief on Nature: Food & Agriculture
| Finance for Biodiversity Foundation | Finance for Biodiversity Foundation | July 9, 2026
Highlights the food and agriculture sector’s large biodiversity footprint and offers investors a framework for engaging companies on land conversion, water use, deforestation and nature-positive transition strategies.
Investor Engagement Brief on Nature: Metals & Mining
| Finance for Biodiversity Foundation | Finance for Biodiversity Foundation | July 9, 2026
Explains the biodiversity risks associated with mining’s land, water and ecosystem impacts and provides practical questions investors can use when assessing corporate transition plans.
Draft sector guidance – Technology and communications
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | July 2026
Adapts TNFD assessment methods for technology and communications companies, helping firms identify location-specific nature dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities across their operations and value chains.
Investor Engagement Brief on Nature – Chemicals Sector
| Finance for Biodiversity Foundation | Finance for Biodiversity Foundation | March 13, 2026
Focuses on chemical pollution as a major biodiversity pressure and helps investors assess how chemical companies are managing nature-related impacts, liabilities and transition expectations.
Additional sector guidance – Engineering, construction and real estate
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | January 2026
Helps construction and real-estate companies assess nature-related risks connected with land conversion, material sourcing, water use, ecosystem condition and location-sensitive project development.
Additional sector guidance – Oil and gas
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | January 2026
Adapts TNFD’s LEAP approach for oil and gas exploration, production, refining, marketing and services, where biodiversity impacts, water dependencies and regulatory risks can be highly material.
Additional sector guidance – Water utilities and services
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | June 2025
Provides sector metrics and assessment guidance for water utilities, whose business models are directly exposed to watershed health, water availability, quality and ecosystem condition.
Additional sector guidance – Marine transportation and cruise lines
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | June 2025
Addresses marine transportation and cruise-line nature risks including pollution, invasive species, coastal ecosystems and operational dependencies on healthy marine environments.
Additional sector guidance – Biotechnology and pharmaceuticals
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | April 2025
Adapts nature-risk assessment to biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, including dependencies on water, biological resources and genetic materials as well as pollution and land impacts.
Additional sector guidance – Construction materials
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | 2025
Provides nature-risk guidance for construction-material companies, including location-sensitive impacts, resource dependencies and metrics relevant to extraction and production.
Additional sector guidance – Apparel, accessories & footwear
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | 2025
Helps apparel and footwear companies examine biodiversity exposure across agricultural inputs, manufacturing, water, chemicals, waste and global supply chains.
Additional sector guidance – Beverages
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | 2025
Helps beverage companies identify material nature dependencies and risks associated with water availability, agricultural commodities, packaging inputs and ecosystem degradation.
FABRIC Engagement Brief on Nature: Textiles and Apparel Sector
| Finance for Biodiversity Foundation | Finance for Biodiversity Foundation | December 12, 2024
Provides investor guidance for engaging apparel companies on biodiversity risks from land use, water pollution, materials, waste, traceability and lifecycle impacts.
Biodiversity Impact Assessment at Starbucks Corporation
| Shareholder proponents | PRI Collaboration Platform | 2024
Uses Starbucks’ reliance on Arabica coffee to illustrate how habitat loss, climate pressure and ecosystem decline can create raw-material, cost and supply-chain risks.
Report on risks related to biodiversity and nature loss at PepsiCo, Inc.
| Green Century Capital Management | PRI Collaboration Platform | 2024
Highlights investor concern about PepsiCo’s agricultural and supply-chain dependence on nature and calls for clearer assessment of material biodiversity impacts and dependencies.
Additional sector guidance – Food and agriculture
| Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | TNFD | 2024
Applies the TNFD approach to food and agriculture, where land conversion, soil condition, water, pollination and other ecosystem services can create material business risks.
Roadmap to Nature Positive: Foundations for the energy system
| World Business Council for Sustainable Development | WBCSD | September 12, 2023
Identifies nature-related risks and priority actions for oil, gas and utility companies, including habitat conversion, water management, circularity and climate-nature interactions.
The Roadmap to Nature Positive: Foundations for the built environment system
| World Business Council for Sustainable Development | WBCSD | September 12, 2023
Maps biodiversity risks across buildings and infrastructure value chains and prioritizes habitat protection, material reuse, circularity, responsible sourcing and nature-based solutions.
Integrating biodiversity considerations into infrastructure
| Principles for Responsible Investment | PRI | August 1, 2023
Explains how infrastructure investors can address ecosystem dependencies, stranded-asset risk and transition pressures through governance, targets, due diligence and disclosure.
Nature Finance, Stewardship & Investment Action
Mobilising Public and Private Finance for Biodiversity
| OECD | OECD | August 26, 2026
Reviews how public policy and private capital can mobilize biodiversity finance while improving environmental integrity, with implications for companies, investors and financial institutions exposed to nature-related risks.
Biodiversity Finance: A Systematic Review and Interpretative Framework for an Emerging Research Frontier
| Del Sarto et al. | Journal of Economic Surveys | July 2026
Reviews the rapidly expanding biodiversity-finance literature and organizes research around valuation, financial risk, firm exposure, disclosure, governance and conservation finance.
Reframing biodiversity finance towards the SDGs: A systematic literature review and future directions with implications for emerging economy contexts
Maps the evolution of biodiversity finance and identifies research and policy gaps affecting the ability of businesses and financial institutions in emerging economies to respond to nature loss.
Q&A: What Investors Need to Know About Landscape Initiatives
| Karen Mo | Ceres | June 23, 2026
Explains how place-based landscape initiatives can help companies manage nature-related supply-chain risks that cannot be solved through individual supplier monitoring or corporate due diligence alone.
Working Across Landscapes: An Investor Guide to Managing Nature Risk at Scale
| Ceres | Ceres | June 18, 2026
Explains how investors can evaluate corporate participation in landscape initiatives designed to manage deforestation and ecosystem risk beyond the boundaries of individual farms, facilities or suppliers.
Green finance, environmental policy and technological innovation as tools for managing nature-related risk and biodiversity loss
| Authors listed in article | Journal of Environmental Management | April 15, 2026
Finds that green finance, environmental policy and technological innovation can reduce nature-related risks, linking biodiversity resilience to corporate investment, energy choices and policy incentives.
Natural Capital & Biodiversity
| Schroders | Schroders | 2026
Explains how investors can assess natural-capital dependencies, biodiversity impacts and nature-related risks alongside opportunities in restoration and nature-positive investment.
Our Plan for Nature
| Schroders | Schroders | 2026
Outlines an investment approach that treats nature risk as relevant to long-term risk and return and integrates research, stewardship and nature-based investment opportunities.
Protecting our natural capital
Explains why declining natural capital can threaten business inputs, supply chains and investment returns while creating opportunities for companies that improve resource resilience.
The effect of green finance on corporate biodiversity risks
Finds that green finance can reduce corporate biodiversity risk through greener development and lower climate exposure, with effects varying according to pollution intensity and environmental management.
Do investors care about the rainforest? Evidence from voluntary carbon offsets around the world
| Franklin Allen; Patrick Behr; Riccardo Cosenza; Eric Nowak | Review of Finance | November 25, 2025
Shows that investor reactions to rainforest-related voluntary carbon offsets changed after credibility concerns emerged, highlighting biodiversity and integrity risk in environmental markets.
Biodiversity co-benefits in carbon markets? Evidence from voluntary offset projects
| Zoey Yiyuan Zhou; Douglas Almond | Review of Finance | November 9, 2025
Questions biodiversity claims in voluntary carbon markets by finding that some offset projects can coincide with greater habitat disturbance, creating integrity and reputational risk for buyers.
Does financing biodiversity reduce biodiversity loss? Evidence from EU funding of science and innovation
| Andre Poyser | Review of Finance | November 5, 2025
Finds that biodiversity funding can improve forest preservation and ecological data while effects on species outcomes may be limited or delayed, underscoring execution risk in nature finance.
Nature finance and biodiversity credits: A private sector road map to finance and act on nature
| McKinsey & Company | McKinsey & Company | January 29, 2025
Provides a roadmap for companies to connect nature strategy with financing tools such as biodiversity credits, payments for ecosystem services, green bonds and nature-linked loans.
Biodiversity credits: A guide to identify high-integrity projects
| McKinsey & Company | McKinsey & Company | January 27, 2025
Outlines integrity guardrails for biodiversity-credit buyers, emphasizing legal rights, Indigenous and local-community safeguards, additionality, durability, monitoring and verification.
Ten tests for nature strategy
| McKinsey & Company | McKinsey & Company | January 17, 2025
Offers a set of tests for evaluating whether a corporate nature strategy is integrated with business priorities, resilience, competitive advantage, governance and capital allocation.
Investors engage with corporates on nature policy influence as systemic risks grow
| Principles for Responsible Investment | PRI | June 26, 2024
Describes investor engagement with companies whose lobbying and policy influence can affect deforestation, land degradation and broader systemic nature risks.
Developing a biodiversity policy: A technical guide for asset owners and investment managers
| Principles for Responsible Investment | PRI | March 26, 2024
Provides investors with a framework for biodiversity policies covering physical and transition risk, objectives, metrics, stewardship, engagement and nature-related opportunities.
Spring: About Spring
| Principles for Responsible Investment | PRI | 2024
Explains why forest loss and land degradation can create operational, legal, market and supply-chain risks that become systemic threats to diversified investors.
Guide on engagement with companies
| Finance for Biodiversity Foundation | Finance for Biodiversity Foundation | April 12, 2022
Provides financial institutions with practical guidance for engaging companies on biodiversity risks, targets, value chains, voting and escalation strategies.
Unlocking Private Finance for Nature
| World Bank | World Bank | September 25, 2020
Explores how private finance can incorporate biodiversity risk and highlights sustainability-linked lending tied to supply-chain traceability and reduced nature impacts.
Beyond ‘Business as Usual’: Biodiversity Targets and Finance
| UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative | UNEP FI | June 2020
Identifies priority sectors with high biodiversity impacts or dependencies and offers a step-by-step approach for banks, investors and insurers to begin setting biodiversity targets.
