Accelerating private sector use of public biodiversity- and nature-related data to measure, report, and act on biodiversity.

Biodiversity underpins the global economy and human well-being, providing vital ecosystem services (such as pollination, water purification, and climate regulation) upon which over half of global GDP depends. Yet accelerating biodiversity loss, largely driven by human activities, poses increasing risks to economic stability, business resilience, and financial systems. Recognising both their role in the problem and their potential as part of the solution, companies face growing pressure to understand, mitigate, and disclose their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity. The Global Biodiversity Framework calls for urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, with Target 15 requiring businesses and financial institutions to assess, disclose, and reduce their nature-related risks and impacts. In Europe, regulations (such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and others) are driving demand for reliable, spatially explicit biodiversity data that can inform business decisions and accountability.

This Biodiversa+ report provides guidance on how the private sector can better use public biodiversity and nature-related data to inform decision-making, disclosure, and strategy. Using a mixed-method approach, the study combined desk research with semi-directive interviews involving over twenty companies from high-impact sectors (energy, materials, consumer staples, and finance) and numerous international biodiversity and nature-related initiatives and organisations. The interviews explored how companies currently work with biodiversity data, the challenges they face, and the emerging solutions shaping their corporate actions.

The findings show that while biodiversity data is plentiful, it remains underused due to fragmentation across platforms, uneven quality and comparability, limited ecological literacy, and uncertainty about how to integrate data into business processes. Nevertheless, many firms are innovating through collaboration, internal capacity-building, and partnerships with data intermediaries.

Key takeaways highlight that (1) businesses must start using available data now rather than waiting for perfection; (2) collaboration across public and private actors is essential; (3) long-term investment in data quality and accessibility is needed; and (4) social and cultural factors within organisations are as important as technical improvements in achieving biodiversity-positive action.