THRIVE: mapping biodiversity impacts and dependencies for corporate nature-positive decisions

Human activities are profoundly reshaping the planet, driving accelerating biodiversity loss and widespread habitat degradation. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) call for halting human-induced extinctions and safeguarding critical ecosystems by 2030. Yet economic growth and associated pressures, including land-use change, resource extraction, climate change, pollution, and invasive species, continue to erode biodiversity, especially in global hotspots. Achieving the Kunming-Montreal goals requires not only global commitment but also robust, spatially explicit assessments that allow public and private sectors to understand, mitigate, and manage their biodiversity impacts.

In response, regulatory frameworks such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) now require companies to assess their biodiversity impacts and dependencies. However, existing tools, including IBAT, WWF’s Biodiversity Risk Filter, ENCORE, and AI-driven platforms, capture only partial aspects of biodiversity. Many rely on coarse spatial units, static datasets, sector-level averages, or black-box algorithms. Importantly, none combines site-specific biodiversity state, direct pressure assessment, and temporal monitoring needed for informed, location-based mitigation and nature-positive planning.

THRIVE (Toolset for Hierarchical Reporting and Insightful Validation of Ecosystems) was developed by Naturalis Biodiversity Center in collaboration with KPMG to fill this gap. THRIVE is a spatially explicit, site-level biodiversity monitoring tool that integrates globally recognised datasets (e.g., Biomes, WWF ecoregions, WDPA, Key Biodiversity Areas, Red List, GBIF) with regional and national biodiversity data. It merges dynamic land-use change, fragmentation, encroachment, wetland conversion, species occurrence, and habitat condition into a hierarchical set of indicators, revealing biodiversity state and pressures at each location. Unlike many existing tools, THRIVE uses transparent, externally verifiable data aligned with TNFD LEAP and CSRD reporting, ensuring auditability and actionable, site-specific decision-making rather than coarse risk scanning.

By linking corporate activities directly to observed biodiversity conditions, THRIVE enables companies to identify high-impact or high-risk sites, prioritise mitigation and restoration actions, and contribute to global biodiversity targets. While not yet designed for portfolio-level aggregation, THRIVE provides a scientifically rigorous, decision-ready foundation for nature-positive corporate strategies, ensuring biodiversity assessments are aligned, credible, spatially explicit, and fit for the 2030 and 2050 ambitions.