A research perspective towards a more complete biodiversity footprint: a report from the World Biodiversity Forum

The impact of human activities on biodiversity is increasingly putting at risk the capacity of Nature to support human well-being (IPBES 2019). The recent Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) reiterated the importance of land- and sea-use changes, exploitation, climate change, pollution and the introduction of invasive alien species as the major direct drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation . This assessment also highlighted the need to address the indirect drivers of biodiversity loss, such as unsustainable patterns of production and consumption (IPBES 2019). Acknowledging the importance of understanding the biodiversity impacts of products and supply chains, the life cycle assessment (LCA) community has been devoted to improving how biodiversity is incorporated in LCA. To date few operational life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods exist that account for biodiversity impacts . However, more and more private and public actors are asking for appropriate methods, models and indicators to perform biodiversity footprint of products. At EU level, this need has been recently reinforced in the Biodiversity strategy (EC, 2020a) by the inclusion of environmental footprint as an approach to support the assessment of biodiversity impacts due to business activities and supply chains.

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10451/49418

Citation

Marques, A., Robuchon, M., Hellweg, S. et al. A research perspective towards a more complete biodiversity footprint: a report from the World Biodiversity Forum. Int J Life Cycle Assess 26, 238–243 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-020-01846-1