Good Practices for the Collection of Biodiversity Baseline Data
1 July 2015
Biodiversity baseline studies play a vital role in supporting the assessment of risks and impacts, informing impact assessments and the application of the mitigation hierarchy, and the designing of long-term biodiversity management and monitoring measures. This guidance was developed by the Cross Sector Biodiversity Initiative (CSBI), a partnership between ICMM, IPIECA and the Equator Principles Association.
Summary
- This publication offers guidance for companies, lenders, regulators, and others involved in conducting Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs).
- The mitigation hierarchy is the core good practice for addressing biodiversity impacts, and biodiversity baseline data provides information about the state of biodiversity features to inform decisions around avoidance, minimisation, restoration and offsetting of a site’s impacts to those features.
- This guidance should help those involved in developing ESIAs to understand the technical concepts underpinning biodiversity baseline studies. It details the steps required and studies/analyses to be undertaken by specialists, what to include in a baseline study report, what stakeholders and experts to involve in baseline studies and how the baseline study should inform ongoing monitoring.