Project Overview
BiROFin provides insights in two areas:
1. Sectoral and country level monetary economic effects of biodiversity loss
2. List of biodiversity loss abatement and restoration measures and their investment and operational estimates
This collaboration aims to address the most significant ecosystem services, sectors, and specific major countries for the private sector.
Wageningen Economic Research has been upgrading the MAGNET general equilibrium model to allow it to examine the sectoral effects of biodiversity loss on the economy and vice versa at the global level.
Key Features
- Duration: The project spans four years, from January 2024 to December 2027. The first results for two selected ecosystem services will be published by the end of 2024.
- Outputs: The project partners will receive monetized estimates for sectoral and country-level biodiversity effects. Costs and benefits of abatement measures. Both datasets will be made available via a database, dashboard, explanatory guidelines, and overview reports.
- Data Sets: The project will provide two datasets to the financial sector. The first is a comprehensive dataset that includes the monetary effects of losing ecosystem services at the sector-country/region level for different scenarios, including pollination services, soil quality, and additional ecosystem services. Second, is a dataset of abatement measures to restore or abate biodiversity loss, including implementation costs, capital investment requirements, and economic benefits in monetary terms.
- Application: Financial sector companies will pilot test and utilize these estimates for risk management and stress test purposes, strategic and market purposes (market and financing, investment volumes), as well as reporting. and to identify key investment areas related to biodiversity.
- Reports: The project’s outcomes will be regularly published and shared in reports accessible to the general public.
Project Impact along the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
BiROFin aligns with targets 15, 18, and 19 of the Biodiversity Plan (former GBF):
- Target 15: Build the capacity of companies to report and disclose their impacts on biodiversity.
- Target 18: Redirect and eliminate harmful subsidies and incentives that contribute to biodiversity loss.
- Target 19: Address the biodiversity financing gap by mobilizing financial resources from all sources.
Furthermore, this project responds to the goals of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). EU now requires all large and listed companies to disclose information on the risks and opportunities arising from social and environmental issues, as well as the impact of their activities on people and the environment.
