Investor action on biodiversity: Discussion paper by PRI

In a new discussion paper titled “Investor action on biodiversity”, PRI outlines emerging approaches for integrating biodiversity into investment policies and strategies. Written against the background of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report which identified biodiversity loss as one of the top-five risks for 2020, the PRI discussion paper is based on literature review and interviews with 11 investors who are PRI signatories and other environmental groups with finance programmes.

The paper provides investors with actions they can take in six different areas: awareness, commitments and initiatives; investment allocation; stewardship; policy; meaningful data collection; and scaling up action on biodiversity.

The paper also contains a series of recommendations for institutional investors to scale up action. Of note are the annexes which provide a selection of tools for understanding biodiversity risk, examples of individual engagement activities on biodiversity-related issues, and an overview of biodiversity measurement approaches.