Giulia Carbone, Deputy Director of the Global Business and Biodiversity Programme at IUCN, presented a roadmap for businesses operating in and around Key Biodiversity Areas, some of the most biologically significant places on the planet.

The report, Guidelines on Business and KBAs: Managing Risk to Biodiversity outlines steps that businesses can take to actively safeguard biodiversity and avoid contributing to its loss. It recommends businesses of all sizes and across all sectors to adopt 15 guidelines to better manage their direct, indirect and cumulative impacts on KBAs. It addresses issues such as avoidance of impacts, limits to biodiversity offsets, as well as financial guarantees and corporate reporting. It guides businesses in managing the potential losses and other risks associated with their negative impact on biodiversity, including potential impacts on access to financing and increased company exposure to negative press.

Giulia explains how the Guidelines can help businesses demonstrate good environmental practice and compliance with voluntary sustainability standards or certification schemes, and how companies operating in KBAs can make a positive contribution to biodiversity by investing in conservation actions and sharing relevant information about the KBAs, including data collected in Environmental Impact Assessments, baseline studies and monitoring activities, with the KBA Partners. She also discusses how they can assist governments in authorization decisions related to business operations.