Too many Biodiversity tools? Here’s how to make sense of them

Which tools have you used to find sites near high integrity ecosystems? Top answer IBAT.
It’s great for identifying biodiversity significance—but not ecosystem integrity. The comparison map below explains both.

At our mission is to demystify biodiversity tools for financial institutions and corporates.

📍The draft version below is based on a mapping by Finance for Biodiversity, but:

• It overstates asset coverage (a known issue with tool developer claims)
• It still contains some inaccuracies

🧩 4 Main Types of Biodiversity Tools

(Business applications vary—details in comments)

1️⃣ Impact & Dependency Measurement – Databases

• Inputs: ISINs
• Outputs: Modeled impacts/dependencies
• Covers: Listed equities, corporate bonds, loans, some sovereign debt

2️⃣ Impact & Dependency Measurement – Approaches

• Tailored analyses using pressure data
• Expands to: Private equity, real estate, mortgages, impact funds

3️⃣ Location Screening Platforms

• Inputs: Asset coordinates
• Outputs: Overlap with high biodiversity features
• Use: Project finance, real estate
• Often misunderstood as ecosystem integrity tools

4️⃣ Sector Screening Tools

• Link economic sectors to general biodiversity impact & dependency

⚠️ Notably under-covered:

• Green & sustainability-linked bonds
• Commodity trade

📐 5 Key Metrics: Which Biodiversity Are You Measuring?

1️⃣ Ecosystem Condition (used by tools in categories 1 & 2):
Models changes in biodiversity based on pressure data.
Not yet aligned with Nature Positive Initiative (NPI) Indicator 3 (“Site condition”), but closely related.

Common metrics:

• PDF (Potentially Disappeared Fraction)
• MSA (Mean Species Abundance) – most widely used
• BII (Biodiversity Intactness Index)
• EII (Ecosystem Integrity Index)

2️⃣ Species Extinction Risk:
Currently only addressed in location screening tools (3)
Linked to NPI Indicator 6

Post generated by: Jerry Berger, CEO at BioInt. The Biodiversity Footprint Intelligence Company (BioInt)