Target 4

𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝟏𝟓: 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲-𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬

🤔 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐲?
This target aims to progressively reduce the negative impacts and increase the positive impacts of business on biodiversity, and to encourage more sustainable patterns of production. To accomplish this, countries should put in place measures to encourage and enable business and financial institutions to identify and disclose their dependencies and impacts on biodiversity, and to report on these and other information, and to require this in the case of large and transnational companies and institutions:

🌿 𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥, 𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬: The target calls on Parties to develop a set of measures to encourage and enable businesses and financial institutions to undertake a set of actions to progressively reduce negative impacts on biodiversity and increase their positive impacts. Specifically, the target calls for legal, administrative or policy measures to encourage businesses to regularly monitor, assess and transparently disclose their risks, dependencies and impacts on biodiversity, to provide relevant information to consumers and to report on compliance with access and benefit-sharing regulations and measures where applicable.

🌿 𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: While this target applies to measures for all types of business it places a particular emphasis on large and transnational companies and financial institutions. These types of companies and institutions, owing to their size and areas of operation, supply and value chains and portfolios often have large net impacts on biodiversity. As such improvements in their monitoring, assessment and disclosure processes have significant potential to generate positive outcomes for biodiversity, particularly as issues associated with supply chains and portfolios are often overlooked in sustainability reports.

🌿 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫, 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤𝐬, 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬: All businesses are dependent on biodiversity in some way. Many business practices have impacts on biodiversity. This element of the target calls for business to regularly assess and disclose these dependencies, impacts and risks. In the case of large and transnational companies and financial institutions, such assessments and disclosures should be made a requirement.

🌿 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬: Making information available to consumers on the impacts of business practices on biodiversity can empower people to make more informed decisions about their consumption patterns. This can in turn help to drive the demand for products with fewer impacts.

🌿 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭-𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: Some businesses make use of genetic resources in their business operations. Where this is the case, these businesses need to ensure that their operations comply with any relevant access and benefit-sharing instruments. Putting in place measures for reporting on this issue is one way of encouraging compliance.

To learn more about all 23 Targets, please visit: https://www.cbd.int/gbf/targets