Biodiversity - a GRI Reporting Resource - Global Reporting Initiative

The Challenge of Reporting on Biodiversity
How will the Biodiversity Resource Document help?
Reporting is a tool for sharing information with stakeholders about an organization’s activities,
impacts, and performance in relation to biodiversity. The Biodiversity Resource Document aims to:
• assist reporting organizations in understanding the issue of biodiversity and its relationship
to their activities and operations;
• offer insights on specific issues and challenges related to biodiversity reporting;
• discuss how the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines can be
used to report on biodiversity; and
• provide information resources and references to help organizations with their biodiversity
reporting.
TARGET AUDIENCE FOR THIS DOCUMENT
The Biodiversity Resource Document is for organizations interested in learning more about
biodiversity and approaches to reporting on it. The readers’ knowledge level of biodiversity
will vary significantly between those who are technical experts in the field of biodiversity,
and those who are not biodiversity experts but who are responsible for reporting on it. The
document tries to provide information that is useful for both audiences.
DOCUMENT STRUCTURE
The Resource Document has been structured as follows:
Part 1 introduces the Biodiversity Resource Document. It discusses the relevance of biodiversity
to organizations and briefly explains the relationship between this Resource Document and
the Performance Indicators of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.
Part 2 provides contextual information on biodiversity for organizations wishing to learn more
about biodiversity in general. It elaborates on the value attributed to biodiversity by supporting
the provision of ecosystem services, the (inter)national policy objectives relevant in this area,
and the relationship between organizations and biodiversity. It concludes with the implications
for reporting.
Part 3 deals with the engagement of stakeholders and approaches to telling the story on
biodiversity. It addresses some of the practical issues that arise in reporting and approaches
to handling these.
The bibliography and Annexes provide sources used for the preparation of this document,
together with sources of information relevant for reporting for organizations aiming to obtain
additional information or assistance.
R e p o r t i n g o n B i o d i v e r s i t y
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