Biodiversity Governance and Performance in the Food Sector

Introduction

Numerous studies confirm that the food sector, with intensive agriculture as the main provider of raw materials, has a huge negative impact on biodiversity. Food companies are increasingly becoming aware that biodiversity loss is affecting their core business and should be addressed as a priority – together with climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, the majority of food companies still do not have biodiversity strategies, action plans, and concrete goals for biodiversity in place.

Legislative Context

New and upcoming EU legislation forces more companies to identify and evaluate their risks, impacts, and dependencies related to biodiversity. The main objective of the project is to improve the biodiversity governance and performance of the food sector in Germany and in other EU countries.

Project Goals

The project supports food companies to fulfill current and upcoming biodiversity-related legislation and to go even beyond legal requirements. This will significantly contribute to a more effective implementation and enforcement of compliance with binding EU instruments on nature.

Initiative Development

Based on the experience of the German initiative “Food for Biodiversity,” the project supports the creation of a minimum of five new national food sector initiatives for the improvement of biodiversity performance in EU countries.

Network Creation

A European-wide network is created to:

1. Agree on minimum requirements (Basic Set of Biodiversity Criteria) for the food sector.
2. Harmonize methods and procedures of monitoring.
3. Use synergies and facilitate the exchange of experiences and lessons learned.

Capacity Building

The project will strongly improve the biodiversity knowledge of managers in the food sector, including information about:

• Biodiversity tools
• Incentives for farmers
• Biodiversity credit schemes for insetting projects

Additionally, auditors and accountants are trained so that they can audit biodiversity information in corporate sustainability reports.